The Knights of Earth
by deathwing17
Summary: When the second Earth/Mars war kicks off, Inaho Kaizuka and his friends find themselves being pressed into service to defend their home against the invaders. However not everything is so cut and dry; For behind the scenes a hidden threat waits and plots, their plans just as dark and cruel as the corrupt forces of the Orbital Knights. plz read and review
1. A Single Spark

The Knights of Earth

Chapter 1

A Single Spark

Disclaimer: I do not own Aldnoah. Zero but I do own the characters and Kataphrakts that I have created for this fanfic.

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-Apartment Complex, Shinagawara, Japan-

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An orange sun had risen over the horizon to shine on the bustling metropolis known as Shinagawara located in the island country of Japan. For many people this meant that they needed to get up and start the day. Some willingly got out of bed and went to go perform whatever job was required of them while others simply tried to postpone the inevitable and rest for at least a short while longer.

Inside a large apartment complex near the heart of the city there was a man of roughly thirty five years of age who was doing his best to try and sleep in for as long as possible. The man's name was Marcus Graves.

On the nightstand next to his bed there was an alarm clock that had just turned to 6:00am. A high pitched whistling noise blared from the offending machine causing Marcus to groan pathetically from underneath the covers and reach out with his left hand in an attempt to hit the "snooze" button "Shut up, shut up, shut up. Please for the love of god, all I want is a few more minutes of sleep," he mumbled in a barely coherent fashion. Unfortunately though he was only successful in prodding the side of it for the first couple of attempts before finally managing to hit the button that would silence that irritating device.

Realizing that he had to start the day Marcus sat up and ran a hand through his unkempt dark brown hair. Pushing some of his bangs away from the front of his face, Marcus let out a tired yawn and stretched out his arms. With no small amount of reluctance on his part, Marcus managed to pull himself out of bed and onto the hardwood floor.

Marcus quickly put on some clothes and made his way into the small kitchen to get some breakfast. There was only a twenty minute window of opportunity to get some food in his stomach before Marcus needed to get ready to go to his job at the local highschool.

Roughly ten years ago Marcus had been a normal pilot in the United Forces of Earth (UFE) which was the armed forces of United Earth the government that controlled humanity's home world. During the time of the war Marcus had lost many of his friends and family to the Vers military and soon after the war ended he stepped down from active duty and became a piloting instructor for the UE military. He specialized in teaching others how to pilot Kataphrakts such as the training unit KG-6 Sleipnir and the more recently introduced KG-7 Areion, KA-4 Dyaus and KMR-3 Embarr*.

Marcus pushed the thoughts of the past out of his head for the moment and instead readied himself a cup of coffee and some toasted bread. It wasn't exactly a perfect breakfast but then again Marcus had never been much of a cook. Hell after he had moved into his first apartment he had practically lived off of takeout and easy-to-cook meals.

This was due in part to whenever he so much as attempted to use a stove or oven of any kind the food he had been cooking would somehow inexplicably end up catching fire no matter how careful he was during the attempt. Lieutenant Marito had once remarked that they should have the fire department or the military's EOD (Explosive Ordinance Disposal) teams on standby whenever he started cooking just in case. Just a few minutes later Marcus finally managed to finish off his breakfast and clean off the dishes before he headed out of his apartment.

As he walked outside of his modest living quarters Marcus felt the crisp late-autumn air brush up against his body. Most of the leaves had long since fallen to the ground and he knew that within a few weeks the air would probably end up getting even colder than it was now. After climbing down a set of stairs he finally got to the parking lot where his car was waiting for him.

The car Marcus used wasn't the most impressive thing to look at, it was an older model that he had purchased a couple of years back. Sure it was only three or four years old but it still ran okay and it was good if one wasn't planning on making long distance trips, so it worked just fine for him. Marcus entered the car and put his key into the ignition all the while hoping that the traffic wouldn't be too bad while he made his way to the high-school.

After Marcus finished exiting the parking lot he turned on the radio as he started to drive down the road "-less than a few hours from the arrival of Princess Asseylum of the Vers Empire who is coming to Earth for a goodwill visit. Although there are many believe that this will help to improve relations between the United Earth and the Vers Empire, tensions are still high. An anti-Martian group: The Earth First Party have been making daily protests outside of the Vers Embassy ever since the visit was first announced. The Earth First Party was formed shortly after the founding of the Vers Empire and has gained a massive following ever since the-"

Marcus shut off the radio before the station's host could finish his sentence _'Can't I go anywhere without hearing about those Martian fuckers anymore?'_ he wondered irritably to himself. For the past several weeks the only thing that people seemed capable of thinking about was the 'goodwill visit' from the spoiled brat of Vers.

Sure there were a lot of people out there who liked her due to her preaching of peace between Vers and the UE, but it was pretty obvious to Marcus that it was just her granddad using her as a mouthpiece. After all for the past few years he'd been trying to convince the UE to lift the trade embargo they had on a lot of goods that Vers had wanted to get their grubby little paws on. This whole 'goodwill visit' was probably just an attempt to try to at least partially smooth relations before that old fuck decided to try and open up negotiations again.

Marcus found himself gripping the steering wheel of his vehicle so hard that his knuckles turned completely white, while he clenched his jaw tightly as he thought about that bastard. That scumbag had the audacity to claim that just because he and everyone lived on Mars that that somehow made them a new evolved race and were now superior to the people who lived on Earth in every way. If that were true then why did they need anything from Eearth to begin with?

To Marcus the so-called "Vers Empire" was just a Third Reich rip-off just waiting to happen.

The Kataphrakt instructor put those thoughts out of his head as he continued down along road and instead turned his thoughts towards the lesson plans for the day when the students used the Kataphrakts.

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-Count Cruhteo's Landing Castle, currently in high orbit above Earth-

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The bridge of Count Cruhteo's Landing Castle was completely abuzz with activity. Well over a dozen men and women worked at their duty stations while their commanding officer, Count Cruhteo sat on his command throne located directly above his subordinates. The very sight could be reminiscent to that of a monarch looking over his subjects in a medieval court. Of course that wasn't too far from the truth.

As a member of the nobility of Vers and being a high ranking Orbital Knight, Cruhteo effectively ruled over a relatively decently sized plot of land back on Mars. However given that he was an Orbital Knight that meant that he had to stay orbiting Earth along with thirty-seven others in the event that war broke out between the UE and the Vers Empire. If such a thing did indeed occur then it was the Orbital Knight's duty to launch the first strike against the inferior Terrans.

However such a thing probably wasn't going to happen today as he was simply there to house Princess Asseylum while she undertook her goodwill visit to the people of Earth to try and improve relations. Cruhteo, like many members of the Martian nobility found it disgusting that she would lower herself to the point of interacting with the people of Earth. Still he supposed that it probably shouldn't have come as too much of a surprise considering the ridiculous views her mother had managed to place on her when she was young.

For the past month and a half, Cruhteo had attempted to talk the princess out of going down to that nest of inferior beings but to no avail. The girl was determined to try and form a bridge of 'friendship' between Earth and Mars so that there would be a lasting peace between both nations. Cruhteo hated to admit it but he did have to admire the girl's unwavering determination however misguided it was. The fact remained that the girl was probably making a very idiotic mistake in visiting those that were inferior and they probably still held a grudge against those of the Vers Empire for the war ten years ago.

Still despite Cruhteo's many misgivings on Princess Asseylum's plans to improve relations, he would still do as she asked as he was duty bound to obey her commands as the heir of Vers. At least she wasn't heading down with that manservant of hers, Slaine Troyard. Why the Princess kept that little upstart around was beyond him as he; like the people Princess Asseylum was going down to visit was a Terran and therefore beneath everyone that lived in the Vers Empire.

It was a point that Cruhteo frequently made to the lowly Terran with every opportunity he was given, violently in most cases. The little upstart acted far too casually around the princess for his tastes, as though he were her equal when that couldn't have been farther from the truth. They may have known each other for quite some time but there was a very large gap in social standing, it was improper for the boy to act that way around her highness and Cruhteo was more than willing to educate the Terran on how improper it was.

Cruhteo was brought out of his thoughts when he glanced over at one of the consoles that one of his subordinates was currently manning. It showed the security camera footage the primary hanger for the Landing Castle where the princess and most of her entourage were already boarding a shuttle that would take them down to the Earth's surface.

The only one that didn't seem to be joining the group was Slaine for some reason. For a second Cruhteo wondered why that was but soon decided that such a thing didn't really matter. If the princess decided not to bring along that vermin then that was her choice.

Another concern that the Count had was that there were a lot of Terrans out there that could quite possibly harm the princess but he had long since dismissed it. Even though it was pretty much an established fact that Terrans were inferior in almost every way to Martians, they weren't completely stupid. They knew that if any harm were to come to Princess Asseylum then they would face the might of the Vers Empire and the Orbital Knights would be the vanguard of their emperor's wrath!

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-Shinagawara Academy, Kataphrakt Training Grounds-

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Marcus Graves sat down at the observation building to the side of the live fire range watching as several orange painted training Sleipnir models fired their weapons down range at various targets. As they did Marcus continued to jot down their accuracy scores. Some of the students managed to do moderately well while there were a number of others who weren't even able to scratch the outermost portions of their targets.

In the fifteen years since the Heaven's Fall incident most middle and high-schools throughout the world had to set up a Kataphrakt training facility on their grounds. Given how the military was still struggling to get its numbers back up to before the war, new laws were created so that all high school students had to get military training before graduation. After graduating all students would be drafted into the reserves for no less than a three year tour. Once the three years were up they could choose to remain in the military's regular forces or they could leave and live as civilians.

There was a lot of criticism to this new system and there were a relatively small number of political activist groups that had been lobbying to have this system revoked but they had made very little progress thus far. Although many didn't like it, most people knew that they had to be ready in the event of renewed hostilities from the Vers Empire. Although there was a peace treaty established after the war fifteen years ago there were many who believed that Rayregalia would simply start another war if he didn't get whatever he wanted in the near future.

Marcus broke himself out of those kinds of thoughts and decided that it would probably be better for him to focus more on the task at hand. He continued to watch as each and every one of the students take their turns up at the firing lanes for a few minutes longer. Eventually after several of the students got some relatively average results in; one of the more highly graded students was given a turn in one of the Sleipnirs. Inaho Kaizuka.

For reasons unknown to Marcus the boy was a natural Kataphrakt pilot and a brilliant strategist/tactician. Ever since the boy first started training, it showed that he was quite possibly one of the most gifted combat pilots in the entire academy aside from a handful of others. At first, a handful of the other instructors thought that the boy had probably been playing a lot of Kataphrakt sim games in his spare time or something as a couple of the gaming developers seemed to try and go out of their way to make the games as realistic as possible.

That theory was promptly thrown out the window the very second they saw just how poorly one of Inaho's friends, a boy by the name of Calm Craftman was performing when piloting a Kataphrakt. Apparently the boy and several of his friends played those kinds of games whenever they were given the chance to do so but despite this it turned out that his skills were average at best. Before he climbed into the cockpit for the first time Calm liked to brag to his friends and even a couple of teachers on how he'd probably end up with the best grade due to his gaming experience.

However that wouldn't prove to be the case. Calm could barely even make his Kataphrakt walk in a straight line making some of the instructors wonder if he was actually _trying_ to make it walk around like a hammered drunk and his best accuracy rating was a "C" when it came to the shooting range.

Marcus watched the boy took out the standard issue assault rifle and fire several short controlled bursts at the targets downrange. Most of the shots being fired hit their marks with a substantial amount of accuracy. Once Inaho's magazine was completely out of ammunition and immediately went for a fresh one. Before the new magazine could be fully loaded into the weapon however Marcus spoke over his communications headset "Inaho Kaizuka sling the rifle for now, I want you to use your pistol."

The response he got was an "Affirmative sir," that came from that exact same stoic voice that Inaho always used when addressing others. It was weird, and even a little bit unnerving, hearing a tone you'd under most circumstances hear from a battle hardened veteran coming from a fifteen year old kid.

Inaho's Sleipnir drew its pistol and aimed it at the nearest target downrange. Less than a second later oversized bullets fired from the weapon soared through the air and struck the target achieving a well above average score on the boy's start. When it came to the targets that were much farther downrange though the . The shooting continued for a few minutes longer before Marcus once again spoke into to microphone "Kaizuka stand down and return to the waiting area, Inko Amifumi you're up next, take the sniper rifle from the gun rack and hit the long range targets."

While Inaho piloted the orange Sleipnir back to the nearby hanger Inko's Sleipnir slowly and rather unsurely walked up to the shooting range and grabbed a sniper rifle from one of the racks nearby before loading it and taking aim downrange. The movements she took were rather hesitant.

It seemed to Marcus that it was as if she was constantly nervous that she'd end up doing something wrong. Marcus made a mental note to have a little talk with her about that but at the moment he needed to have everyone continue the exercise. "Inko don't hesitate, you won't hurt anyone if you're careful," Marcus suggested calmly.

With that having been said the hesitation in the Sleipnir's movements lessoned considerably. upon seeing this Marcus once again spoke into the microphone, "Okay Inko, hit all the targets starting with the ones farthest from your current position," he ordered before the girl lined her first target up with her sniper rifle's scope. As Inko began to open fire on the targets Marcus heard the door leading into the observation booth slam open and a female voice call "I'm sorry I'm late!"

Without even turning around Marcus already knew who was behind him, Inaho's older sister, Yuki Kaizuka. Marcus turned around to look at the young woman whose face had taken on the expression of someone who was both exhausted and embarrassed at the same time. And she should have been at least slightly embarrassed, she was very close to being thirty minutes late.

Marcus gave the woman a deadpan expression "You're late instructor Kaizuka, _again_." Yuki flinched in embarrassment and appeared as though she was about to try and explain why she had run so late when someone tapped her on the top of her head with a small flask that was undoubtedly filled with alcohol "Hey there Warrant Officer Sleepyhead. There was a man behind her who, like Marcus, appeared to be in his early to mid-thirties. This man was Lieutenant Koichiro Marito, a former tank officer who had been reassigned to Shinagawa as a combat instructor after Heaven's Fall.

Yuki turned to look at Marito but when she did a foul stench assaulted her nose. The stink itself came from the man's breath and took a few steps away from him "Lieutenant Marito, you know full well that you aren't supposed to be drinking before you go on duty, especially when there's a colonel is coming all the way from headquarters for a visit any day now!" she exclaimed.

Marito cocked a brow in confusion, "I haven't heard anything about a colonel visiting from HQ. When did this happen?" he asked knowing that if nothing else he would probably get chewed out for this anyways. Both Yuki and Marcus looked at their comrade in arms with bewildered expressions.

"I know you didn't bother to attend the meeting two weeks ago but surely you must have read the email we _both_ sent you after the meeting was over!" Marcus exclaimed while he face-palmed.

They were so screwed if Marito was caught drinking while on duty by one of the bigwigs back at HQ. Given that Marcus was the same rank as Marito it wasn't' like he could have him sent to the brig or put him on a slightly different schedule that would keep him at home (or more likely a bar) while the colonel came to visit.

What Marito said next didn't help matters all that much either "I don't check my emails anymore, not after I got about a hundred asking me if I'd like to make my manhood bigger, amongst _other_ things" he shrugged. Neither Marcus nor Yuki had any idea as to how they could possibly respond to that one. Marito sheepishly scratched the back of his head and wondered idly if he shouldn't have mentioned that.

For a few seconds no one said anything but just when it looked as though Yuki was about to respond the door opened up again only not as quickly as it had before and someone stepped in. The three combat instructors turned around and saw a sight that they didn't expect would show itself until roughly twenty-four hours had passed. The colonel from headquarters was here for the inspection a day early. The colonel was a man that looked like he was in his mid-forties with kind looking blue eyes and short graying dark blond hair that was covered by a military beret.

The instant that they saw the colonel walk in, all three snapped to attention just causing the man in front of them to give a small friendly chuckle and smiled kindly at the three instructors. "At ease people at ease, I'm not here for the inspection, that's tomorrow, right now I'm just here as a tourist," he explained much to the relief of the group.

The colonel then looked directly over at Marcus and for a moment or two and then seemed to recognize him "Marcus Graves, it's been too long old friend, how have you been these past few years?" he asked with a smile. At first Marcus was curious as to who in the hell this man was but then he took a good long look at the man and finally managed to realize where he'd seen the man before.

The reaction that Marcus had was priceless. It almost seemed as though his eyes were about to pop right out of his head and his mouth would probably end up hitting the floor if it went any lower. "Maxwell Braddock, is that you? My god it's been what, eight years since we last saw each other?" he said smiling as he finally realized that he had just met an old friend after a very long time.

Braddock chuckled "Just about, I can honestly say that that when I volunteered to take this gig to get out of the literal mountain of paperwork I had back at headquarters, I didn't think that I'd be meeting you here until I looked at the files of the instructors who worked at this academy."

As the exchange between two long separated friends continued, Marito and Yuki looked increasingly confused as to how their colleague Marcus personally knew a high ranking colonel that worked back at Headquarters. Seeing the confusion on their faces, Braddock decided to explain how the two knew one another.

"Marcus and I went through training together and even served in the same Division until after the war started, we've been good friends for several years, although this is the first time we've ever had a face to face meeting in quite some time." Braddock then turned and looked right at the other two instructors "Now it seems you all know who I am but I don't believe that I've met you as of yet."

Marito and Yuki both simultaneously gave sharp salutes and introduced themselves in standard military fashion. They gave the colonel their names and ranks. In response the colonel let out a small chuckle that soon turned into full-blown laughter.

The two instructors wondered to themselves if they had done something stupid when at last colonel Braddock's laughter had managed to die down "There's no need for any of you to act so formal, I'm not here as a colonel, despite my current attire, after all I couldn't get in this part of the school unless I was in uniform. Lord knows the guards would probably end up thinking I was some sort of trespasser and would probably lock me up until they finally confirmed who I was and in spite of what most people think I'm not a very big fan of handcuffs."

The colonel's explanation for his appearance made a lot of sense, those that patrolled the school's Kataphrakt training area took their jobs very seriously. Each one carried a remote kill switch for the Kataphrakt's power supply in the event that someone snapped and decided to go on a rampage using a Kataphrakt. True there were no school shootings that involved the training Kataphrakts but considering how devastating they could be in the wrong hands, everyone believed that it would be best to not tempt fate in the matter.

The two instructors stopped saluting and once again both Marito and Yuki gave one another strange looks. They honestly hadn't expected that the visiting colonel from headquarters to be so, laid-back. The colonel then looked down at the range where the other students were currently training and watched the orange colored Sleipnirs continue to fire rounds downrange. Braddock continued to watch the training session for a few moments longer before he looked back at the instructors with a curious expression "That orange Sleipnir, number zero-seven I believe it's called, who was the one that was piloting that machine?"

Braddock noticed that Warrant Officer Kaizuka's body had stiffened once she heard him ask that question and she looked rather apprehensive about something. The colonel raised a brow at the woman and asked "Is there some sort of problem warrant officer?" Although he already had some idea as to why she was acting the way she was.

Yuki bit her lip for a second, unsure of how she should respond to the colonel's question but she was saved from doing so by Marito "The pilot of zero-seven is Inaho Kaizuka sir."

That explained quite a bit. The good warrant officer was probably concerned that Braddock would consider using the Conscription Act on a family member. The Conscription Act was created shortly after the events of Heaven's Fall and the war between the UFE and Vers. Because casualties were so high that it was difficult to find new recruits to replace the soldiers that had been killed, the Conscription Act was put into effect by the UFE.

This declaration allowed high ranking officers to recruit almost anyone over the age of fifteen into the military which most certainly included the sixteen year old Inaho Kaizuka. Of course there were limits to who could be conscripted; convicted criminals and anyone under the age of fifteen were out of bounds, period.

Braddock gave Yuki what he hoped would prove to be a reassuring look "Don't worry I don't have any intention of invoking the Conscription Act on any of the students here, I'm just curious is all." Yuki looked relieved to hear that and let out the breath she had unconsciously been holding in "Thank you sir, that means a lot to me."

With that having been done the colonel turned to look over at Marcus who said "I can get you the boy's file on your desk by tomorrow Colonel Braddock," to which the colonel gave a curt nod before he started grinning once again.

"Excellent. However at the moment I think that we should catch up, preferably over a few drinks. Are there any good bars in the city?" Graves and Marito grinned at the idea while Yuki just face palmed, wondering if there were any male officers in the UFE who _didn't_ enjoy going to the local bars once their shift was over.

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Shortly after Inko Amifumi had finished up on the shooting range, classes for the day were over and the students that were in attendance for the Kataphrakt training got set to leave for home. Once the training with the Kataphrakts was over, Inaho went over to check the scoreboards and saw that once again he had made the top score on the shooting range while Inko came close to beating his score but not quite. His other friends were all over the place, Nina Klein was a few places behind Inko while Calm Craftman and Okisuke Mikuni did only moderately well at best.

As Inaho headed for the bus station to catch a ride back home so that he could continue on with his studies he soon found himself being approached by Okisuke and Clam the former of which was clearly excited about something. It didn't take long for Inaho to figure out why that was. For the past couple of weeks the only thing that anyone really seemed capable of talking about was the upcoming goodwill visit by Princess Asseylum of Vers. Okisuke was in fact one of the people who almost constantly reminded Inaho and his other friends of this detail.

"Hey Inaho, you want to come with us to see the start of the goodwill visit?" asked Okisuke, who was barely able to contain his excitement about the visit. Inaho shrugged not nearly as enthusiastic about the visit as his friends were "Sure I guess. But all that's really happening is just the motorcade driving down the road right?"

Okisuke just shrugged "That's not really the point we'll be watching history unfold, that's more than reason enough to go and see the arrival for ourselves!"

"Not to mention that we'll probably get at least one good look at her royal highness, after all the net says she's supposed to be really hot," mentioned Okisuke with a sly look on his face. Calm rolled his eyes at the display and had already knew the reason as to why Okisuke had been so excited about the visit ever since it had been announced. The blonde haired boy rolled his eyes at Okisuke. Sure he had heard the same thing about Princess Asseylum and Calm loved looking at cute girls but he was more into girls that were from this planet and not from what was essentially an enemy country.

"You do realize that it's pretty damn unlikely that you'll even end up getting anywhere near Asseylum right?" Calm asked giving his friend an incredulous expression before "The secret service badasses that are guarding her will probably gun you down if you so much as looked at her funny."

Inaho pondered on whether or not he should go with his two friends, he didn't usually get started on his homework until around six or seven o'clock anyways and it was only three. He could probably go with them to at least try to catch a glimpse of the visiting royal if only to kill some time before he went home.

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-Shinagawara, Subway Train, en-route to the center of town-

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The many subway trains that ran underneath most of Shinagawara were practically filled to the brim with passengers, each one attempting to get to one part of the city or another. Most o the passengers though were trying to get to one specific spot however. The area where Princess Asseylum's motorcade would be passing through during her initial visit to the city.

The young royal was very popular with just about everyone on the planet due to her stance on building better relations between the UFE and Vers. However there were a few groups of people who didn't like her due to her being the grandchild of the current Emperor of Vers. A man whose family had declared war on Earth and caused the moon to explode killing untold millions of innocent people. Most of those people were already making their protests known at the Vers Embassy as well as other important UFE government centers.

However there were a group of individuals that had far more sinister intentions for the young royal than a simple protest.

One of their number was sitting down on one of the many occupied seats on the train was clutching a small leather bag close to his chest in the fear that he'd lose it and what it contained. Inside the bag were a few seemingly trivial things such as a cell phone a camera and a pair of binoculars. If someone from security was to try and investigate the contents of his bag when he arrived at the site where Princess Asseylum was making her visit then their curiosity would probably be sated when they saw that he only carried items that an ordinary tourist would have on him.

Just a few minutes later the subway train's breaks screeched along the rails as it started to come to a halt as it finally arrived at its destination. Once the screeching subsided and the train halted in its tracks, the people who had been sitting throughout the ride got up out of their seats and made their way out of the train and onto the platform where they headed towards wherever it was they were heading for.

The man walked out of the train and onto the platform and the instant that his feet hit the concrete floor of the train platform his cell phone started ringing. He hastily took the phone from inside the bag and pressed the answer button. "Yeah?" he asked somehow knowing that the person on the other end of the line was going to start yelling at him.

Sure enough the person on the other end of the line yelled "Where the hell are you? Her highness is going to show up in less than an hour and you know we only get one chance at this Viero!" The man now known as Viero barely managed to keep calm and not yell back at his comrade on the other end of the phone line as he really couldn't afford to draw too much attention to himself.

"Don't worry Wolf I just got off the subway and I'm making my way to the site now, I should be there within fifteen minutes." There was a sigh of deep irritation coming from Wolf's end "Just make sure you get to where you need to be in time or there'll be hell to pay!" there was then a click as Wolf hung up on Viero.

Viero put his cell phone back in his bag and started to make his way through the crowd at a much faster pace than the one he was going at a few moments before. The one that he and Wolf Areash served was not the kind to reward failure, especially when it came to something as important as this.

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-Shinagawara, City Entrance, a few minutes later-

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The bus that Inaho and his friends had taken, took almost thirty minutes to arrive at the area where Princess Asseylum's motorcade would be making driving down. Hundreds if not thousands of people were gathering to see if they could catch even the slightest glimpse of the visiting royal. Behind the many police cordons people had out cameras, cell phones and similar items that could be used to take pictures as the limo and its escort vehicles passed by.

Currently Inaho, Okisuke and Calm were on an overpass with a perfect view of the advancing vehicles. Calm had his hands crossed and was looking at the approaching vehicles with a bored expression while Inaho was off in his own little world and fiddled with his phone. Okisuke had out a cell phone with a built in camera and was trying to get a few decent snapshots of the motorcade. However he was incredibly disappointed that the type of limo that the princess was riding in wasn't one that would allow him to catch a glimpse of the occupant inside as the windows were completely blanked out.

When Okisuke noticed this he looked dejectedly at his camera as he'd been hoping to get at least one or two snapshots of the princess. Calm cocked an eyebrow at his friend "As I said numerous times earlier, we're probably not going to even see her here right?" he asked before continuing "The limo she's in is equipped reinforced armor plating that can stop just about anything short of an artillery strike and the windows are blanked out bullet proof glass."

"Ah man I really wanted to at least catch a glimpse, I mean it's supposed to be a parade you'd think that she'd at least wave to us." Calm just rolled his eyes at his friend "Yes, we know that. You've been making your weird delusions _very_ clear for quite a while now. Personally I don't see why we couldn't have just watched this on TV back home."

At this Okisuke turned and gave his friend an incredulous look "Calm this is a goodwill visit so we need to be here to add to the noise, make her feel at least a little bit welcome you know." Calm rolled his eyes and muttered "Since when did you decide to start sympathizing with the enemy?"

"Ah don't be like that Calm, just try and enjoy yourself." Okisuke then turned to Inaho who hadn't taken his eyes off of his phone the entire time they'd been there and was hoping to at least get one of his friends on his side. "You agree with me right Inaho?" Upon closer inspection Okisuke saw that he was checking an online price guide for egg cartons.

"Half off, huh, may need to purchase those for tonight," Inaho muttered to himself.

Okisuke and Calm shouldn't have been surprised, Inaho was almost always off in his own little world.

A new voice interrupted the three friends "Hey guys!" the three teenagers turned to see one of their friends, Inko, running towards them. Calm cocked a brow, he'd thought that she'd be back at school taking part in one of the student council meetings.

Out of curiosity Calm asked "So did you decide to come and see the princess make an appearance too?" he asked. she simply shook her head at her friend "The student council was asked by the guys providing security to help redirect traffic but we're pretty shorthanded to say the least. You mind giving us a hand?"

Calm and Okisuke both glanced at each other wondering how to break the news that they weren't interested while Inaho continued to fool around with his cell phone without a care in the world.

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A short walk from the motorcade's route was a large parking structure that was connected to an office complex. The parking complex was largely deserted aside from a few cars belonging to employees who needed to arrive at their shift. However there was one vehicle that was out of place, a medium sized delivery truck that was parked on the fourth floor in a manner that its back was facing the parade that the princess was in. The driver who had just finished driving into the spot, put on the parking brake and ran out of the vehicle as fast as his legs could carry him.

As he ran he pulled out a small cell phone and called up one of his comrades "The delivery system is in position and waiting on you." The man didn't even wait to hear the response as he continued to run for the nearest exit. It wouldn't be good if he was caught before their plan was put into action.

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* * *

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Viero looked through his binoculars out at the approaching motorcade. Just a few moments ago he'd gotten a call from Wolf who informed him that everything was in position and the rest was up to him. Other than Viero and the driver the rest of the group had specific instructions when it came to the plan. Wolf and the rest of the group were acting as spotters, letting the next person down the line where their target was currently located.

As the motorcade continued to approach Viero tapped a small, almost unnoticeable button on the top of his binoculars and a tiny laser built into the binoculars turned on and a red dot appeared on the lead limo. Then a loud boom filled the air signaling the launch of one of the guided missiles that Viero and his comrades had acquired through the black market. Viero knew that in these next few moments were critical for the success of their mission and for their own future.

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* * *

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Okisuke and Calm were already trying to convince their friend Inko that they weren't interested in helping them redirect traffic around the area but she refused to back down on them. "C'mon it's not that hard all you have to do is wear this arm band and stand around looking pretty," she explained.

Inaho meanwhile just continued to fiddle with his phone, checking the prices on eggs and various other ingredients at the local grocery stores for dinner later that night. As he continued to look through the online price guides Inaho noticed something out of place in the corner of his eye. Inaho turned and looked in the direction of whatever it was that he'd seen in the corner of his eye and saw an exhaust plume that was heading from relatively high up in the air heading towards the princess' motorcade. Curious he activated his phones camera function and zoomed in on it and for less than a second Inaho's eyes widened but then they went back to their normal dull look.

Knowing that he'd have to get his friends somewhere safe from the missile Inaho turned around to face the arguing trio and said in a calm even tone "We need to get out of here."

''Calm, Inko and Okisuke gave their friend strange looks and Inaho decided to elaborate further "There's a missile heading this way." The three looked at each other for a second before said missile streaked right passed them and struck the motorcade.

The missile impacted one of the guard vehicles and narrowly missing the limo that the princess was inside of. Unfortunately this wasn't the last attack on the motorcade as more missiles came towards the vehicles. Within seconds most of the motorcade was destroyed save for the vehicle carrying Princess Asseylum. it even looked as though that she was going to make it out alive before one of the remaining missiles hit the pavement right next to the limousine.

The explosion wasn't enough to destroy the limo outright but the sheer force of the impact overturned the car sending it crashing upside down onto the pavement. For a few seconds there was nothing but silence as the crowds who had gathered to see the princess' arrival stood in place, shocked at what had just happened in front of them. But then something amazing happened. One of the doors leading into the back of the limo slowly opened up and a girl in a regal looking outfit and had long blond hair done into a complicated bun crawled out of the wreck.

Once she finished crawling out of the damaged vehicle she pulled herself up, using the wrecked vehicle as support. Unfortunately there was one last missile that was headed straight for the princess. There was absolutely nothing anyone could do as the missile struck its target and exploded destroying both the limo and the visiting royal from Vers.

* * *

to be continued.

*I decided to add two new Kataphrakts to the side of the Terrans to add a bit more variety to their forces. Their appearance and capabilities will be revealed sometime during next chapter.


	2. And so it Begins Again

The Knights of Earth

Chapter 2

And So It Begins Again

Disclaimer: I don't own as it is the property of its copyright owner.

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* * *

-Tokyo Japan Cruhteo's Landing Castle bridge-

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Cruhteo looked over his subordinates as he watched what he could hardly consider a battle unfold around him. Terran and Vers Kataphrakts fought one another throughout the city streets but it was easy to tell that the terrans were quickly losing the fight. With the power of Aldnoah, defeating the Terrans in combat was as easy as crushing an insect beneath one's boot.

 _'pathetic rabble,'_ Cruhteo thought condescendingly as he watched one of the monitors of a group of Terran Kataphrakts fell to the plasma blades of sir Vlad's personal Kataphrakt, the Argyre. It made Cruhteo wonder just what in the hell the Terrans had even hoped to accomplish by slaying Princess Asseylum. Then again, they were hardly intelligent and it was unlikely that any of them thought that far ahead.

But those thoughts did little to ease his own sense of guilt. Cruhteo had had ample time to convince her highness to cancel her 'goodwill' mission to Earth and return back to the homeland where she belonged. Instead (in his mind at least) he made a barely lackluster attempt at convincing the princess of the error of her ways. As much as Cruhteo was loathe to admit it even that lowly terran Slaine Troyard had made a far more hearty attempt at convincing her highness than the count did.

And now the one whom Cruhteo was charged with protecting with his very life was dead, all because he had failed to keep her from going to this world. Never in his life had Cruhteo felt such shame and disgust at himself. All he could really do now was ensure that the ones responsible for her death were hunted down and butchered like the swine they were.

The Vers Count was broken out of his thoughts when he heard the sound of footsteps coming from behind him. Cruhteo turned to see one of the knights that had been assigned to his landing castle since the war ended ten years ago, sir Trillram. The man was, in Cruhteo's personal opinion a careerist soldier, the man wanted little more than to make a name for himself amongst the nobles of the royal courts.

While Cruhteo personally disapproved of such a such a motive for serving in the military -duty and loyalty to the empire should always come first- the man was a more than competent Kataphrakt pilot and was quite useful on the battlefield if the simulation records were anything to go by. The moment that Trillram entered he immediately bowed before Cruhteo as a show of respect as he was addressing a man of superior station.

After Trillram finished giving the count a bow of respect he immediately got down to business "Lord Cruhteo, might I be so bold as to recommend that we make a push into Shinagawara as soon as possible. If we were to take the city and plant the flag of Vers at the site of her highness' tragic death it would only solidify Vers' cause."

The golden haired Count stroked his chin for a brief moment "Indeed, in fact that was what I had intended to do all along." Trillram gave the count another respectful bow and asked "Lord Cruhteo would you please give me the honor of leading the attack in order to repay you for allowing me to infringe on your hospitality for all these years?"

Cruhteo didn't really see any harm in indulging in Trillram's request. "Very well Trillram, you are to enter Shinagawara and crush all opposition you come across. After that you are to apprehend the area's leaders and discover the circumstances behind her highness' death."

Trillram nodded "Of course lord Cruhteo, of course." The Baron then turned around and headed for the hanger bay all the while he had a very sinister looking sneer on his face.

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* * *

-Shinagawara Japan, UFE military base, briefing room-

* * *

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A little less than twenty hours had passed since the terrorist attack at the Princess Asseylum's motorcade and things had gone completely to hell. Almost immediately after the death of the princess, the Orbital Knights, a military group apparently under the command of Count Saazbaum ordered a full-scale invasion of Earth. The recording of the man's declaration of war against the UFE had been repeating on most news services for quite a while now.

"Our Princess Asseylum's heartfelt wish for continued peace has been mercilessly crushed by a violent and unprovoked act from these treacherous Terrans! We the Orbital Knights, loyal subjects of the Vers Empire shall bring the hammer of justice down upon Old Humanity for this dastardly affront!"

As the speech provided by the leader of the Orbital Knights continued, there were many in the room including Marito, Yuki and Graves who were now trying to tune out the bastard's overly dramatic monologue. Once the enemy commander's speech was finally finished, Colonel Braddock (who had since taken charge of the local military forces) changed the monitor to a map of the world with almost thirty cities highlighted in red.

"The enemy's strategy is ridiculously simple, use the force of the impact from their landing castles to clear out any nearby hostile forces and establish a beachhead. Of course that also means that any civilians caught in the shockwave radius are killed as well." Everyone scowled at that little tidbit of information even as Braddock continued.

"Given that each of the landing castles are landing so far apart from one another indicates that they don't appear to have any real interest in grouping together to form a cohesive force which gives us an advantage in that their forces will be isolated for the time being." Braddock then gestured towards Japan, more specifically; Tokyo.

" As you all well know there is a landing castle heading straight for the outskirts of Tokyo. Evacuations are already underway but it is unlikely that everyone will be able to get out before the enemy lands. Our current orders are to hold Shinagawara until evacuations are complete then we will leave to reinforce the fourth and fifth fleets in their counterattack against the landing castle." Braddock then looked over the interactive map behind him and began to use the computer to highlight certain portions of the city as he told everyone their assigned positions.

Eventually Braddock got to the area near the southern portion of the city "Clydesdale platoon along with Warrant Officer Kaizuka, Lieutenant Marito and Lieutenant Graves will be assigned to the south eastern sector of the city, you're objectives are to patrol the area for any hostiles and give whatever assistance you can to the forces evacuating the civilians if necessary."

Once Clydesdale platoon and their new squadmates got their orders the leader of the platoon, a lieutenant in his mid-twenties by the name of Seiji Kato looked over at the 'extras' assigned to his unit and gave them a confident smirk. "I don't really see how we'll have any problems, after all there's no real strategy behind these attacks at all. We'll pick those bastards off easy before they can do any real damage."

Marito shook his head at the overconfident squad leader. The boy had no idea what he was dealing with "If that's what you think then you're wrong. We aren't fighting just one single army we're fighting thirty-seven different militaries, each one clamoring to become king of the hill. It's just like what happened during the last war."

Seiji scoffed at that and muttered just loud enough for everyone in the immediate vicinity to hear "Like you saw any action during the last war you fraud."

Marcus, Yuki and a couple of other pilots that had heard Seiji's little remark looked as though they were about to come to Marito's defense when Colonel Braddock beat them to it "Is there something that you would like to share with everyone else here Lieutenant Kato?" he asked. At first the lieutenant was taken off guard that the colonel had heard him but quickly regained his composure and tried to cover his tracks a little "Just that I want to go out there and kick some Martian ass colonel."

Braddock gave the lieutenant a sardonic smile "You'll get your chance lieutenant, we all will, but might I recommend that you heed Lieutenant Marito's and Lieutenant Graves' advice while you're out in the field, they both have _far_ more experience against this enemy than you and your whole platoon put together. Understood?"

Seiji Kato snapped to a crisp salute and said "Sir, yes sir!" At that Braddock turned and looked back at the rest of the assembled soldiers and said "You all have your orders, so I suggest that you carry them out."

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* * *

-Shinagawara, Apartment Complex a few minutes later-

* * *

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Inaho and his older sister had a very simple plan in place in the event of a city wide evacuation, get whatever provisions that they could get their hands on and use their car to head straight for the nearest evacuation center. In the event that they couldn't get to one of the evacuation centers together then they would take her car and use the shortest and fastest route out of town and find somewhere safe. Of course the plan only really had natural disasters such as tsunamis and earthquakes in mind, not a full-scale military invasion of Japan in mind.

Strangely enough however it would have appeared that his sister was running late, again. While this was in fact a very common occurrence that took place almost every day for Inaho to the point where some of the students of the Shinagawara Academy (specifically Inaho and a couple of his friends) actually nicknamed her: Penivia (the Goddess of Laziness).

Although Inaho knew that he should probably leave the apartment and make his way towards the nearest evacuation center, he didn't want to leave only for Yuki to arrive back at their home right after he left. Inaho had attempted to contact his sister several times using both the home phone and his cell phone.

Not once did the fifteen year old get any response from his sister. He knew that Yuki was probably fine as there hadn't been any reports of fighting in Shinagawara or in some of the other nearby cities so although it was possible she was deployed already, it wasn't definite.

Currently Inaho was holding a small pan by the stove and was boiling a small omelet for himself in while holding his cell phone in the other in case Yuki finally decided to return all of those messages that he'd been leaving her. While waiting for his sister to contact him Inaho had gotten hungry and started to make an omelet from the last couple of eggs he had bought at the store a couple of days ago.

The omelet was nearly ready when his cell phone started ringing. Inaho looked down at the cell phone in his hand and saw that it was a call from Yuki. "Hello big sister." While Inaho did greet his older sibling in the same stoic tone that he gave literally everyone he met, he was still happy to hear from her. "Nao I'm sorry that I haven't been able to call back for so long, are you alright?" she asked almost frantically.

"Yes, I'm fine. Why aren't you back at the apartment yet, I thought the plan was that we would take your car and leave town as soon as possible?" That last question managed to make Inaho's sister practically go crazy "Wait you mean you're _still_ back at the apartment? Why in the hell didn't you head for the evacuation centers?!" she demanded.

Inaho was a little confused at the response his sister had just given. Why was she upset that he wasn't sticking to the original plan? "Oh, that's right I suppose I could have done that." A frustrated sigh on the other end of the line preceded his older sibling's response "Inaho sometimes things happen that makes whatever plan we've come up with useless. When that happens you just have to go with your gut instinct and do whatever it is you have to do. Isn't that what I always say?"

There was a slight pause on the other end of the line when Inaho muttered something that sounded like: "Penivia" but she couldn't really be sure. Yuki was about to question her younger brother about what he just uttered when he continued "I'll get a lift from one of the transports that are patrolling in the area."

Although Yuki was still worried for her little brother's wellbeing and wanted to further chastise him for not leaving for the evacuation centers immediately like he should have she was clearly happy that he was alright. "Okay but please promise me you'll be careful out there. Alright?"

There was a small pause on the other end of the line before Inaho answered "I promise but only if you stay safe too." Inaho somehow knew that on the other end of the line Yuki was smiling when she promised him that she'd make sure she would be careful as well.

After the two siblings said their farewells Inaho looked over at the omelet he had been preparing for breakfast and decided that since it was almost done cooking it would be best not to let the food go to waste. In less than a minute Inaho had devoured the entirety of the omelet all the while making mental notes on how he could improve upon the recipe as it tasted rather, off. Inaho made a note to use a different band of eggs next time.

As Inaho headed out of the apartment he looked around and saw that there wasn't anyone else around, the entire area was completely deserted. He supposed that made sense, after all last night there had been mass pandemonium as everyone scrambled to get to an evacuation center as the Vers forces began to make landfall on Earth. Therefore most of the people in the city were either already evacuated or were at the evacuation centers. At least this way things would be a much more quiet than they were earlier so if the enemy forces started their attack, it would be easier to hear the start of it.

Over the silence all around him, Inaho heard the pitter patter of shoes impacting the pavement. The fifteen year old boy turned in the direction the noise was coming from and saw a girl no older than eleven or twelve years old making her way down the street. She had bright orange hair done up into a braided bun and wore an outfit that looked almost like that of an old fashioned maid's uniform.

The brown haired teenager noticed that the girl was running in the opposite direction that the evacuation centers were located, which was very odd to Inaho. Why wouldn't this girl want to get out of this city as soon as she possibly could? Curious Inaho followed the girl thinking that perhaps he should inform her that she was heading in the wrong direction.

As he followed the girl, Inaho once again marveled at just how quiet everything was. Normally at this time of day the streets would practically be choked with cars filled with people trying to either get to work or drop their children off at school. Now it was as though everyone that lived in Shinagawara had vanished into thin air.

The whole scene was like something out of an old horror movie that Okisuke and Calm had all but dragged Inaho to go and see despite the fact they all still had homework to finish up. Calm had said that they were attempting to get him to "loosen up a bit." The attempt had failed. Miserably.

Calm and Okisuke had both trying to contain their fright at the blood gore and insane psychopathic killer on the screen. Inaho meanwhile had just been sitting calmly chewing on some popcorn, all the while pondering how on earth anyone could find such a badly done movie frightening. The only thing scary about it was how bad the acting was.

Inaho then saw the little girl turn into a nearby alleyway that was in-between two old apartment buildings whose occupants had long since fled the city. Still wanting to find out where the girl was going, Inaho followed the girl down the alleyway hoping that maybe he could inform her that the evacuation route was elsewhere. When he turned into the alleyway he saw that the little girl was meeting someone else, another girl that was probably about the same age that Inaho was. She had neck length brown hair and emerald green eyes.

As Inaho walked into the alleyway the two girls noticed him as they instantly turned to look in his direction. Knowing that he should probably say something Inaho spoke up "Excuse me but are you two lost? This area is supposed to be evacuated." The two didn't say anything to him but the one that was about his age stood up and started to walk towards him.

"Are you lost? The evacuation center is in the opposite direction from here." Inaho immediately noticed their lack of response and wondered if they understood what he was saying. It was possible that they didn't seeing as how neither of them looked like they were Japanese.

The girl started to walk towards him silently even as Inaho asked the two if they understood him. When the girl was just a couple of feet away she uttered the words "Forgive me," and grabbed one of his arms, spun him around and shoved him up against one of the walls of the alleyway. Although Inaho was very much confused at the girl's actions seeing as how he hadn't done anything to warrant something like this.

"Would it be alright if I could ask you a few questions?" asked the older girl in a relatively polite manner. Inaho blinked and did his best to shrug despite being pinned against the wall "Considering that I'm stuck like this for the time being I don't really see why not." What she said next actually managed to surprise him. "Why is there an evacuation going on here?"

"You really don't know?" Inaho asked curious as to how someone _wouldn't_ have heard what was going on in the city "The evacuation is in affect because of the Martian invasion of several cities, including Tokyo." With that the girl seemed to tense slightly, which made Inaho wonder why she seemed uncomfortable.

"But we need to get to the embassy in Tokyo and let our people know we're safe!" the brunette blurted out shortly before she covered her mouth with her other hand all the while silently cursing herself for her indiscretion. Who knew what he'd do now that he knew about their citizenry.

Inaho however didn't really seem to react in any way at all to the revelation that the two girls were really citizens of the Vers Empire. Inaho had always felt that judging someone solely based on where they were born was a completely idiotic notion. Rather it should be a person's actions that people should try to base their opinions off of.

"Given the situation I very much doubt that they're even open. Ever since the assassination yesterday the U.E. has-" Inaho tried to explain but was cut off by the brunette "Princess Asseylum is alive!" she exclaimed "She didn't take part in the parade because she was unaccustomed to the planet's gravity and felt ill as a result. So instead a body-double was put in place instead."

Inaho thought about what the girl just said and felt it actually made quite a bit of sense "That's a novel theory," he admitted to himself before he remembered something very important "I texted my friend Inko a few minutes ago, she should be here to take me to one of the main evacuation centers, you're more than welcome to come along if you would like." Both girls seemed surprised by the proposition but soon accepted as it was far better than walking.

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* * *

-Sky Carrier, currently en-route to Shinagawara-

* * *

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Of all the things that Slaine had expected to happen today he did the last on the list was for Count Cruhteo to order him to take Sir Trillram to the exact same city that her highness had died in. In fact, considering the Cruhteo's clear and blatant distaste of him, Slaine would have expected him to have someone of a Martian bloodline to have the 'honor' of flying Trillram out to the battlefield. No matter though, Slaine had intended on visiting the site of Princess Asseylum's death the first chance he got to pay his respects. He owed her that much at the very least.

As the Sky Carrier continued to make its way through the clouds Slaine took in the view that he hadn't seen for the past eight years. The endless clear blue skies and the white clouds were a much more welcome sight compared to that of the cold dark void of space. For someone who hadn't seen something in so many years it was truly something to behold. He could only imagine how it must have been for Asseylum when she went and saw it for the first time.

It was truly a tragedy that Princess Asseylum was unable to see much of it before her life was taken from her in such a vicious manner. Ever since she found out that the sky was blue on Earth Asseylum had had been willing to take any opportunity she could to see it for herself. As the years passed and Slaine had shown her more pictures of Earth and the many things that inhabited it her eagerness to see Slaine's former home only grew. Perhaps if Slaine hadn't shown Asseylum such things she might still be on Vers, alive and well.

A loud beeping noise broke Slaine from his musings and from his time in the Sky Carrier's simulator unit, he knew that this particular beeping meant that there were unknown contacts heading directly towards the Sky Carrier. The contacts were more than likely hostiles considering the fact that Vers was now at war with the UFE. Slaine opened up communications with the Sky Carrier's passenger and said "Enemy fighter squadron heading direction for us from one o'clock."

The face of Trillram came up on the Sky Carrier's communication's screen. He had the exact same arrogant smirk that Slaine had seen on countless Vers nobles when they wanted to act superior to everyone around them "So it would seem that these idiots have decided to show up and die for nothing. Very well, first a warning."

Within mere moments a group of F-22 Raptor fighter jets came into visual range. There were two full squadrons heading straight for them, all armed to the teeth. Once they were within range the missile compartments opened up to reveal a pair of mid-range missiles. The missiles were launched at the Sky Carrier but the attack was a useless gesture at best.

Just before the missiles from the F-22s were launched, the Sky Carrier's passenger had activated his Kataphrakt's primary defensive measure, the Dimensional Barrier which covered both it and the Sky Carrier. the Dimensional Barrier ensured that no damage could ever be inflicted on it. Any sort of projectile weapon that was fired at it was rendered completely useless. Trillram smirked at how the fighters broke off once they saw that their attacks were useless. It was like a small gaggle of ants trying to bring down a fully grown elephant only to find out that they were hopelessly outclassed. Well, now it was time for the elephant to bring down its massive foot on the annoyances.

"Slaine, destroy these pests" Trillram ordered.

The Sky Carrier's defensive turrets swiveled around and aimed at the nearest F-22. Once it was in the crosshairs Slaine was about to open fire but he found that he couldn't. He just couldn't fire and end someone's life like that. His conflicted look caused Trillram to roll his eyes at Slaine's seeming inability to kill. "Oh dear. It seems as though your upbringing was sorely lacking if you can't even pull a simple trigger."

Slaine's controls then deactivated as Trillram took control of the Sky Carrier's systems. The blond haired boy felt the machine move as it turned to the left to chase after the F-22s which were turning around for another run at the Sky Carrier, perhaps hoping that they could do more damage with their guns.

"No matter it seems that I must take it upon myself to educate you in the joys of warfare!" Trillram declared as he began firing at the F-22 Raptors in rapid succession with its cannons. While the F-22s were for the most part more nimble in comparison to the much larger Sky Carrier, their weaponry was only able capable of firing in the direction they were facing, the Sky Carrier meanwhile had the advantage of being able to shoot in almost any direction.

One by one the F-22s were shot down mercilessly until there were only three left. The Sky Carrier managed to get behind one of them and began to chase it down while the other pair of F-22s came to their comrade's aid and began bombarding the Sky Carrier with bullets from their guns but just like the missiles from before they did nothing but be annihilated by the dimensional barrier.

Almost nonchalantly Trillram aimed the Sky Carrier's onboard cannons and fired them at the two Raptors, blasting them out of the sky like they were little more than gnats. Once that was taken care of he turned his attention to the last remaining F-22 and fired blowing off the fighter's right wing but not outright destroying it like the others.

Before the fighter spun completely out of control the pilot managed to pull back on the ejection mechanism. The cockpit popped open and the pilot was launched out of the plane scant seconds before it exploded. The pilot then activated his parachute and began his slow descent back down to the surface.

At first Slaine thought that Trillram was going to let the pilot live but soon he was overtaken by sheer terror when the Sky Carrier turned around and headed straight for the parachuting pilot. "Lord Trillram what are you doing?!" demanded Slaine but Trillram just smirked "Slaine, there is no beauty in the struggle if one is unaware that they're about to die."

Slaine squeezed his eyes shut as the pilot was run down by the Sky Carrier. Right before the pilot slammed right into the dimensional barrier Slaine could swear that he heard the pilot scream. Soon Trillram's sadistic cackles came over the comm. channels "So Slaine tell me; how does it feel to watch your former countrymen be slaughtered like simple livestock from on high?"

The blonde haired boy didn't respond to Trillram's taunts. He wouldn't give him the satisfaction. Once the Orbital Knight allowed Slaine to regain control of the Sky Carrier all he cared about was getting Trillram to his drop point and then he would be free of that sadist for a short amount of time.

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* * *

-Shinagawara, APC interior-

* * *

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Just like Inaho had told them, his friends had come to pick him up shortly after the two girls from earlier had decided to go along with him to the evacuation zone. When Inaho had entered the APC he had almost been surprised to find that his friends Okisuke and Calm were inside the transport as well but he knew that if Inko was out here, she probably would have managed to rope those two into helping with the evacuation. Calm and Okisuke were both looking out of the viewports of the APC, looking for any civilians while Inko was using a loudspeaker to announce their presence and their intention on helping people get to the evacuation centers.

But it wasn't just some of his friends from school that were in the APC as well. Inaho also saw a few people he recognized from around town, including doctor Soma Yagarai, the school's physician. Apparently his car had broken down as he had attempted to make his way to the evacuation center and at the moment he was standing near the driver's area of the APC thanking Inko and the driver profusely for picking him up.

Inaho paid the school doctor no real mind as he was looking out through one of the view ports of the APC with a pair of binoculars helping his friends locate any other civilians who may have been unable to make it to the evacuation centers. As Inaho continued to look through the view port he listened to Calm and Okisuke as they talked amongst themselves.

The two high school boys were currently looking over at the two girls that Inaho had brought along with him. More specifically the one that looked to be around their age. "So Inaho do you know where they're from exactly?" Calm wondered to himself. Neither girl looked Japanese. In fact they seemed like they were more European "Are they Russian? Northern European maybe? You don't see many people from there in Shinagawara," Calm mused aloud.

Okisuke meanwhile didn't really seem to care all that much of where the older girl was from given the goofy looking grin on his face. He only confirmed this a few seconds later when he looked towards Inaho and exclaimed "It doesn't really matter to me where they're from, a babe's a babe and this one is quite obviously a ten! So thanks for picking her up Inaho!"

Inaho didn't so much as glance in Okisuke's direction, instead he focused on what was going on outside and just gave a "You're welcome," in a deadpan tone as an answer.

Okisuke was about to ask Inaho if he had managed to get the girl's name before all of the sudden the APC's driver slammed on the breaks. Calm was about to ask what in the hell was going on when he saw several Terran Kataphrakts moving passed the street just a dozen or so meters in front of them. Seven of them were the standard mass produced KG-7 Areions but there were also a pair of KA-4 Dyauses and another pair of KMR-Embarrs moving past them.

The KA-4 Dyaus looked like a much leaner version of the Areion and was a very lightweight Kataphrakt that was made primarily for reconnaissance and fast attacks. It normally carried either dual wieldable machine pistols or an automatic shotgun that looked like very similar to that of an AA12 if it had a pump action mechanism. On occasion though it used a Designated Marksman Rifle (DMR). Underneath the left forearm was a small compartment where a titanium plated spike was used for close combat situations.

The KMR-Embarr didn't even resemble Kataphrakts like the Dyaus, Areion or even the Sleipnir. It was a few meters taller than the other Kataphrakts and it had a much bulkier and slightly blockier build to it. While the Dyaus had been built with agility and speed in mind only, the Embarr was the exact opposite. The Embarr was designed for heavy assault or static defense.

An even bigger difference between the Embarr and the other Terran Kataphrakts were the armaments. Unlike the Dyaus, Sleipnir or Areion the Embarr didn't carry its weapons in both its arms like a human would. Instead they were attached to the arms and shoulders of the units. Weapons like oversized miniguns and rocket pods were commonly put onto the forearms while artillery cannons, anti-aircraft guns and recoilless rifles were normally attached onto the shoulders.

One of the Areions broke off from the main group and approached the armored personnel carrier and a familiar voice boomed from the Areion's external speakers "This area is about to turn into a combat zone, you need to leave here immediately." Although the voice was a little distorted because of the speakers it was easy for Inaho and his friends to tell who the Areion's pilot was. It was one of their instructors from school and Inaho's older sister, Yuki.

Without even thinking Inko spoke into the APC's radio unit "Warrant Officer Kaizuka is that you?" she asked in surprise.

Inside of the Areion, said warrant officer was surprised to hear the voice of one of her students "Inko, if that's you then that means that Nao is…" Yuki trailed off as she zoomed in on one of the APC's windows and saw her little brother's face. Yuki felt both relief and annoyance. She was truly relieved that her little brother was okay but annoyed that he hadn't made it to the evacuation center yet. Inaho's older sister massaged her temples in frustration _'Oh for the love of…why does he do this to me?'_ she wondered.

Soon though Yuki broke herself out of those kinds of thoughts and remembered that she still had a job to do "Alright everyone in the APC listen up; an enemy force is heading for Shinagawara from Tokyo. In other words, this entire area is a projected combat zone so you need to turn around and head back to the evacuation centers immediately!" she ordered.

Okisuke's voice then came through Warrant Officer Kaizuka's radio "But, warrant officer we have to head through this way in order to reach the pier!" he exclaimed, almost in a panic. Yuki gritted her teeth, she wouldn't let any martian so much as scratch her little brother if she could help it. "Then go for the pier! find somewhere to hold up until things die down a bit. We'll hold them off! Now move it!" she declared in a voice more fierce and dedicated than any of her students or family had ever heard before.

The Kataphrakts then continued their march down the street but eventually the two groups split off. The pair of Dyauses then started taking an alternate route. Perhaps they intended on making a move to flank the enemy? It didn't really matter Inko supposed. What did matter was that they needed to get out of there, now!

.

* * *

-Shinagawara, Overpass-

* * *

.

Viero Hansen, along with Wolf Areash and the rest of their compatriots had been kept waiting at the overpass for several hours now. After eliminating Princess Asseylum the group of assassins quickly made their way back to where they lived and gathered what family they had. They were going home, after ten long arduous years they were finally going home. Not only that but they were going home and would live better lives than they could have ever dreamed of before. After being knighted (as per their agreement) the entire group would have privileges that they could only have dreamed of before now.

Back on Vers almost all of them originated in the lower classes if they were fortunate enough. Some like Wolf Areash and his daughter were lucky enough to keep a ramshackle hut together for shelter but most of the group never had that kind of luxury. In fact Viero was quite literally pulled out of the gutter by one of their employer's many subordinates. Viero continued to look at the partially cloudy sky and looked over at Wolf, who was telling his daughter about how good life was going to be for them soon.

Wolf had probably done this several times before back in the homeland but only now it wasn't just an empty promise. Things were going to get better for them very shortly. Once they got their reward they would be able to live the good life back home. No more would they have to cook vermin for food, no more having to live in a hut in which the roof was in constant danger of collapsing on the occupants and no more having to beg in the streets while those better off walked right by them without paying any mind.

Viero was broken out of his thoughts when he heard the roar of engines overhead. He looked upwards and saw a Vers Sky Carrier passing by overhead and that something was falling just a few dozen meters away. When Wolf's daughter, Rayet saw this she immediately moved away from the falling object as she didn't have the same level of confidence that her father had that what was coming down towards them wouldn't end up hitting them by accident.

Within mere moments the Vers Kataphrakt landed close to the assembled group of spies and assassins with a loud boom. The force of the impact almost caused those assembled to lose their footing on the ruined overpass they'd been standing on for the past hour and a half.

Once they'd managed to regain their bearings they saw an enormous machine standing just a scant few meters from the edge of the overpass. For a few brief moments, a strange light enveloped much of the machine, causing one of Viero's comrades to mutter "The light of Aldnoah," with an almost religious reverence in his voice.

The leader of their band, Wolf Areash walked up to the edge of the overpass and looked directly at the massive machine standing in front of him "Sir Trillram, we have anxiously awaited your arrival!" the man declared. "Yes congratulations on completing your mission. Now for your reward my faithful little rats." The right arm of the massive Kataphrakt unfolded and was brought up above the group. Wolf Areash was about to ask what Trillram was doing when the giant arm descended downward at such a speed that no one could even react.

All the while just a few meters away Wolf's daughter Rayet looked on in horror as her father was killed right before her eyes.

.

* * *

.

Inside of Trillram's Kataphrakt; the Nilokeras, the Orbital Knight gave a self satisfied smirk as he had his Kataphrakt slam its massive hand onto the crowd of Martian spies/assassins. This effectively vaporized all of them with the unit's built-in dimensional barrier leaving no evidence that they ever even existed.

"I'm sorry my faithful little rats but we can't have any of you growing a conscience and squeaking at an ill-opportune time, I hope you understand." Trillram then turned his attention to the one individual that had just managed to survive the whole ordeal, a teenage girl no older than fifteen.

Trillram's smirk widened, "How adorable it's a little baby rat." The Nilokeras then started to march towards the girl, the dimensional barrier eating away at the overpass as he got closer and closer towards her. There was only one rat left and it wasn't like she was going to get away, so he might as well have at least a little bit of sport before he finally killed her.

.

* * *

.

Rayet fell backwards onto the concrete as the Vers Kataphrakt slammed its arm down onto the section of the overpass that her father and his comrades had just been standing on just a few moments earlier. "D-dad?" she managed to utter, her eyes wide in shock and disbelief at what had just happened right in front of her only a scant few seconds earlier.

Her father was dead, just like that. The person that they had trusted to take them back to the homeland and to a brighter future had just murdered her father in cold blood. That bastard vaporized him, leaving nothing behind. Nothing to mourn, nothing to bury, not even ashes that would scatter to the winds. He was just, _gone_. The massive Kataphrakt turned its whole body to look directly at Rayet and she knew exactly what was going to happen next if she didn't get away as quickly as she could.

Moving as fast as her legs could carry her, Rayet all but sprinted away from the Martian Kataphrakt, which had begun to follow her at an almost leisurely pace.

.

* * *

.

It had taken the UFE Kataphrakts a few minutes to finally reach the area where the enemy was supposed to have made landfall. The seven Areions took the lead while the two Embarrs were right behind them, both of which were more than ready to provide fire support. Meanwhile the two Dyauses that had split off earlier, were emerging from a nearby street about a hundred meters away or so and were already in place to attack the target's flanks with close range strikes from their machine pistols and other weaponry.

The Terran Kataphrakts took aim with their weapons at the Martian Kataphrakt, who hadn't seemed to have noticed them as of yet. However before they could open fire on the enemy machine, one of the pilots spotted the Kataphrakt walking leisurely after a civilian. A girl that happened to be no older than fifteen years old.

"Sir, the enemy is chasing down a civilian!" yelled one of the pilots in Kato's platoon while another pilot muttered "Bastard," under his breath. Inside his cockpit Kato activated his laser comm. unit "Attention all units prepare to engage the enemy Kataphrakt." the Kataphrakts then raised their weapons and took aim at the enemy. The only ones reluctant to follow Kato's order were Marcus, Yuki and Marito.

If they were to open fire without first rescuing the civilian from the attacking Kataphrakt, then they ran the risk of hitting the girl accidentally with a stray round or be crushed by the remains of the enemy Kataphrakt. Unfortunately before they could try and get Kato to hold fire until they rescued the civilian, the lieutenant had already ordered the entirety of the group to open fire.

"What the hell are you doing lieutenant?!" Demanded Marito "Rescuing the civilian has top priority!"

"You don't give orders here, Lieutenant Marito! This is my platoon, not yours!" Kato replied back angrily that the war veteran was supposedly attempting to undermine his command. Kato would show that damn fraud that he didn't need his help!

The gunfire from the Areions' assault rifles and the Embarrs' arm mounted miniguns struck the back of the martian machine but much to everyone's shock, none of the rounds so much as made a dent in the armor. They bullets were not even deflected by the armor, instead they just struck some sort of energy barrier and the bullets essentially vanished into thin air.

Despite the literal storm of bullets, none of the rounds came close to striking the fleeing civilian like Marito and the other two former instructors had initially feared. Unfortunately this had the effect of taking the enemy's attention off the civilian and towards them. The massive machine stopped chasing the girl and instead slowly turned around and faced the group of Kataphrakts that were still firing at it.

Realizing that this was the perfect opportunity for them to get the civilian out of there Marito said "Kaizuka, get the civilian out of there, Graves and I will cover you!" There was a quick "Yes, sir!" on the other end of the line. The Areion that Yuki was piloting then sprinted ahead towards one of the overpass' off-ramps, activating her unit's thrusters as she did. The folded wings on the legs unfurled as the thruster mechanism activated, allowing the Areion to hover for a short period of time.

The instant that the unit started to move independently of Kato's orders, the leader of Clydesdale platoon growled under his breath angrily before he shouted at the disobedient Marito "Marito, I'm in command here not you so don't go around giving orders to my platoon!" Marito however just ignored him and had his Areion load a grenade into the underslung launcher of its rifle and hoped that their grenades would prove to be more effective than the other things that they had attempted to use against the enemy machine so far.

Sure enough right after the grenades were fired from the rifles and at the enemy Kataphrakt, they were vaporized by whatever barrier the thing had up. While the Kataphrakt's armor wasn't so much as dented it did have the rather fortunate side effect of at least drawing its attention away from the civilian it had been attempting to run down just a few minutes beforehand.

Yuki's Areion ran right up to the girl and extended a hand onto the ground, as though beckoning her to climb aboard. The older Kaizuka sibling flipped on the machine's external speakers and all but yelled "Get on now!" to the girl. While she appeared slightly hesitant at first the girl's survival instincts kicked in and she climbed aboard the mechanical arm.

Yuki then started to take the civilian away to safety while the other two instructors got in front of her to provide some covering fire. At this point the Orbital Knight must have decided to stop playing around as it made a jump that should have been impossible for something of its size and landed right on top of one of the Areions that was standing on top of the overpass crushing it underneath the weight its giant heel.

Oddly enough the Areion wasn't disintegrated like everything else as it was instead merely crushed like a tin can in a trash compactor. Those that noticed may have thought that it was a little odd but they didn't pay it much mind though as they continued to fire uselessly at the machine. "What the hell is up with that thing's body?!" screamed one of the pilots of Clydesdale platoon in a panic.

"Stay cool, we can take him!" Kato yelled even though his voice carried undertones of fear and panic as well. The Martian Kataphrakt's massive right arm unfurled from its hiding place and swung in a horizontal arc. While the Areions were fast enough to dodge the attack, the Embarrs weren't so lucky. When the hand had finally finished swinging, there wasn't anything left of the Embarrs above the waist. That monster had just destroyed the most heavily armed and armored Kataphrakt that the UFE had at its disposal with a single swing of its arm.

With the Embarrs destroyed the enemy Kataphrakt turned its attention towards the rest of Kato's platoon, more specifically, the Areions that were standing near the Embarrs. As the enemy machine moved in for the kill, Marcus shouted into his comm. unit "Get your men the hell out of there Kato! Now!" Unfortunately Kato must not have heard him or simply didn't listen as Kato and his men did nothing fire uselessly at the Kataphrakt.

"Hold on lieutenant we're coming to help!" one of the Dyaus pilots shouted through the communicator as both of the lightweight Kataphrakts ran towards the Orbital Knight firing their weapons as they did. Just like with all the other times though, nothing went through that damned barrier.

"No don't move in, stay the hell away from it!" Marito yelled in the hopes that the two pilots would listen. Unfortunately Marito's pleas went unheeded as the two Dyauses continued to charge at the enemy, firing wildly as they did. For a moment Marito wondered if they were crazy, suicidal, or if they actually thought that they could actually do some damage to that thing.

Whatever their motivations were though, it didn't really matter. The martian Kataphrakt quickly turned around and swung its massive arm at them. By the time it had finished swinging both Dyauses had been completely annihilated. One had lost one of its arms and most of its upper torso. It's primary power unit must have been breached as it exploded soon after. The other one didn't even have a torso left, only a waist unit and a pair of legs was all that was left of it.

"Open fire, we can kill it!" Kato practically screamed over the comm. channels but it was clear from the panic in his voice that he couldn't even convince himself. Sure enough, the Orbital Knight slaughtered Kato's remaining men within seconds. Even Kato himself wasn't spared as the front portion of the Areion was vaporized right up to the cockpit, exposing the lieutenant.

Kato's eyes were wide with fear and held none of the confidence that had been so prominently displayed back during the briefing just a short time earlier. His eyes widened even further and he even let out a scream as the Martian Kataphrakt brought down its massive hand on top of him, obliterating him instantly.

With almost the entirety of Clydesdale platoon destroyed, the oversized Kataphrakt turned and looked right at the three remaining Areions and started to move towards them.

As it made its way towards them, Marito's Areion drew its combat knife and started to charge straight at the enemy machine. Yuki could only gape at what she saw as an obvious suicide attempt "Lieutenant Marito what the hell do you think you're doing?!" she demanded. "Get the kid out of here, I'll buy you some time!" he yelled as his Areion's thrusters engaged and he sped towards the enemy Kataphrakt, ignoring the protests of his comrades as he did.

Naturally when the Areion's blade looked as though it was about to touch the enemy machine's face it was instead absorbed along with most of the right arm. Marito quickly reacted by pulling back a bit and taking the standard pistol out of its holster and with the Areion's left arm and aimed it directly at the Kataphrakt's face and opened fire. The pilot of the martian Kataphrakt must have been somewhat amused or something along those lines because he didn't immediately react. Instead it just stood there for a few seconds before it swung its right arm at Marito.

Everything below the waist of Marito's Areion was completely obliterated and the upper portion of the machine was sent over the edge of the overpass and down to the ground below, its pistol continuing to fire at the enemy Kataphrakt as it fell. Despite how utterly wrecked Marito's machine looked, it was more than likely that the pilot inside of it was still among the living.

With Marito out of the picture for the moment, the martian Kataphrakt started making its way towards the remaining two Areions. Knowing that it would probably be futile to try and fire at the thing point blank as was demonstrated by the majority of Clydesdale platoon just a few moments ago, Marcus instead aimed his weapon at the concrete overpass. _'Please just let this slow the bastard down!'_ he silently hoped as he opened fire.

The 90mm rounds impacted the overpass with enough force to easily break through the concrete, blowing off chunks of the overpass. But it still wasn't enough, the enemy machine kept coming after them. Changing tactics, Marcus then quickly loaded the underslung grenade launcher.

He was about to fire the grenade but the Orbital Knight already gotten off the overpass and was making his way towards them. Knowing that a direct assault would probably prove to be futile Marcus fired the grenade at the ground in front of the oversized Kataphrakt, hoping that whatever debris that was kicked up in its wake would be enough slow it down enough.

Of course it did nothing even as the two Kataphrakts started to fall back into the inner section of the city.

.

* * *

-APC, Shinagawara-

* * *

.

Inaho Kaizuka and the others inside of the city had heard the gunfire the moment it started. While Inaho didn't show it on his face he was very worried. Given the amount of gunfire and how long it had been going on before suddenly just stopping, meant that either his sister and her comrades were fighting a large group of hostiles, or it was one that was incredibly strong.

After a couple of minutes, the loud noise that gunfire made had stopped completely, which meant that either Inaho's sister and the rest of the Kataphrakt platoon had defeated the opposition or their enemy had annihilated them. Inaho then heard booming footsteps heading in their direction that told the dark haired boy that they were about to find out. Inaho got out of his seat and headed for the front of the APC where Inko and the others were at.

As he made his way towards the front of the vehicle he heard Inko talking with someone on the radio that sounded a lot like his older sister, but Inaho couldn't be sure as it was due to the interference that was starting to get stronger and stronger. Sure enough though, a pair of Kataphrakts were running down the street, one was carrying something in both its hands while the other had its machine gun out. Inaho could tell was aiming at something that was farther away from their position and was starting to walk towards it, firing as it did.

When the Areion lowered its cupped hands, Inaho saw that a girl was being carried by the machine. "Quickly you have to take this girl someplace safe, now!" Yuki's voice ordered from the radio. Inko and Okisuke opened up the door that led into the APC and helped the girl inside the vehicle all the while Calm spoke into the radio "Wait what's going on?" he asked, worry laced in his voice.

When Yuki gave a reply it was difficult to hear over the gunfire coming from the other nearby Areion "There's no time, you need to get the hell out of her now!" she yelled. It was obvious what was going on, the Kataphrakt platoon was probably wiped out aside from Yuki and Graves. Inaho was then broken out of his thoughts when he faintly heard someone who sounded like Lieutenant Graves shout the words "I'm ejecting!" over the radio.

In just a few moments a cube shaped object crashed into the street just a few meters away from their vehicle. Within a matter of moments, Inaho saw Lieutenant Graves climb out of a small hatch on the side of the escape pod and begin to run towards them as quickly as his legs could carry him.

As Lieutenant Graves continued to get closer and closer to them Inaho saw the fear in the man's eyes it became clear to everyone that things were about to get much worse. When Graves finally got into the APC he sat down and started panting as the adrenaline began to wore off. "What just happened?" asked Okisuke fear clearly evident in his voice.

Lieutenant Marcus Graves gave the student an irritated look "What do you think? I just got my ass kicked kid! Now why don't we-" Marcus was cut off when the Areion that Yuki was piloting suddenly kicked the APC, sending it skidding across the street a short distance away from the Areion.

As the APC skidded across the ground, Marcus lost his balance and slipped onto the metal floor of the APC, hitting the side of his head. While the air bag built into the pilot suit that Marcus wore did manage to cushion the blow when it deployed which prevented any serious damage from being done to him, it still managed to knock him out cold.

Almost immediately Doctor Yagarai went over to the knocked out soldier's side and checked him over while Inaho's friends looked on, concerned looks on their faces. "It's alright," Yagarai declared "He's just knocked out, he should be alright," the whole group suspected as much but they were glad to hear that their teacher was okay.

Outside of the APC Yuki was opening fire on the Martian Kataphrakt that had just caught up with her. After firing several bursts at the main body, with little to no effect at all, one of the rounds skimmed along the side, just underneath the left armpit area, leaving a small almost unnoticeable scratch.

However Yuki was unable to continue her attack as the massive Kataphrakt drew back one of its arms and struck. The strike managed to hit the right arm and leg causing both to be absorbed by the barrier that surrounded the enemy machine. This caused the Areion to lose its balance and fall backwards, with most of the machine's upper back falling onto the APC, leaving a rather large dent in the transport's ceiling.

Inside the transport, Inko watched as the old guy who had opted to drive the APC opened the door on the driver's side and started running away as fast as he could. Completely shocked at the man's actions, Inko called for the man to get come back to the APC but she was completely ignored. The man continued to run until a parked car which had been kicked off the road by the Martian Kataphrakt as it marched towards them fell on top of him.

Inko's eyes widened in horror as she just watched someone die right in front of her. For a moment her mind refused to process what was going on. Inko grabbed the sides of her head as she tried to force back a scream as best she could. Soon though Inko managed to herself that everyone in that transport was counting on her. If she didn't get behind the wheel, they were all going to die.

Regaining control of herself, Inko and floored the gas pedal. The APC started to speed away from the behemoth of a machine that was literally right behind them but they weren't going nearly as fast as they should have been. Calm quickly noticed this and looked over at Inko in a panic even as some of the other members of their little group, moved up to see what was happening.

"What the hell is going on?!" he all but screamed "Drive faster, damn it!" Inko looked over at her scared witless friend "I can't, there's too much weight!" she cried.

Even as the two continued to scream at one another Inaho noticed something in one of the rearview mirrors. Everything that the Martian Kataphrakt was touching was getting absorbed by the barrier. Perhaps they could use this to their advantage.

Inaho continued to look at the rearview mirror and saw that just about everything that the massive machine's legs came into contact with; streetlamps, trees and cars. The highschool student didn't even turn to look at anyone when he yelled "Brake!" over their screams. Not sure what to make of what his friend was just yelled at them, Okisuke looked over at Inaho "Come again?" he asked not really sure what to make of what was just said.

"I said: use the brakes!" Inaho shouted much to the disbelief of everyone in the driver's section of the APC. Their quiet friend never shouted! Inko did as Inaho told her, albeit reluctantly due to the fact that he never seemed to be wrong about this kind of thing. The APC slowed down just enough for the Martian Kataphrakt's barrier to absorb a good chunk of the fallen Areion's leg. "Now slam down on the gas!" Inaho ordered and of course his friend did as she was told and floored the gas pedal.

This time the APC was going much faster and the Martian Kataphrakt actually seemed to be having a slightly more difficult time trying to keep up with it. Still though the APC was having difficulties in shaking its pursuer. Whenever they tried make a turn at a corner with a pair of buildings in between it should have been very difficult for the enemy machine to follow them but the barrier it was using just absorbed whatever got in its way.

As the group continued to run from the chasing machine in their transport, Okisuke ran over to the crew compartment of the APC and grabbed a cable launcher that was mounted on the wall near the entrance to the driver's section. Okisuke then opened up a hatch that was on the ceiling and began to climb up all the while Calm yelled at him, demanding to know what he thought he was doing.

"We can't just leave Yuki out there!" he yelled as he climbed up to the point where more than half his body was leaning out of the open hatch. Okisuke aimed the launcher at the remains of the Areion that the transport had been dragging and then fired, sending out a cable that latched right onto the ruined Areion's shoulder and one right behind the launcher which embedded itself directly into the hull of the APC.

The pursuing mecha that was right behind them jumped forwards in what was probably an attempt to get closer to the APC so it would be easier for the pilot to destroy it. Fortunately it didn't get close enough to strike its prey but it did cause Okisuke to lose his balance and fall out of the APC. Before he could fall of the top of the vehicle however Inaho grabbed his friend's hand as tightly as he possibly could in order to keep Okisuke from flying backwards and into the barrier of the pursuing Kataphrakt.

There was nothing but fear in Okisuke's eyes as he struggled to hang onto his friend "Please don't let go!" he begged as tears unbridled terror started to form in the boy's eyes. Inaho said nothing and instead he had a determined look on his face as he struggled to try and get a better grip on his friend's arm which was already starting to slip.

.

* * *

.

Inside the Nilokeras, Trillram watched the rather touching scene with an expression that was a mix of both sadism and amusement. It was almost touching in a pathetic sort of way, how the boy was valiantly attempting to save his foolish friend from certain death. Perhaps he might…help.

Trillram's smirk grew to the point where it was almost ear to ear. "Here then, let me see if I can assist you with that," he said to himself as he had the Nilokeras raise its foot a little bit higher than normal when it took its next step forwards. Then he brought it down with much more force than was necessary.

.

* * *

.

When the Martian war machine brought down its massive leg onto the concrete, the resulting shockwave caused the APC to swerve on the road violently. The fleeing vehicle was barely able to avoid crashing into one of the buildings as the driver struggled to regain control. While Inko did manage to keep control over the vehicle, the hard turn that the APC was forced to take was enough for Inaho to lose his grip on his friend.

Okisuke practically flew backwards but despite Inaho's attempts to grab his friend's arm again and attempt to pull him back into the APC it was simply too late. Inaho's friend fell backwards and practically flew right into the Kataphrakt's energy barrier, causing Okisuke to be completely and utterly vaporized. As this happened, for the first time in what felt like years, a look of pure horror spread all over Inaho Kaizuka's face. One of the few people who Inaho had ever considered to be a true friend had just died.

The APC continued moving forwards until at last it entered a tunnel and for some unknown reason the Kataphrakt that had been hot on their tails for the past couple of minutes stopped right at the entrance to the tunnel. Sure it was much larger than the entrance but it had that barrier system. Couldn't it just absorb the rock, dirt and concrete around the tunnel as it chased them?

Regardless, it was a relief nonetheless that the enemy machine was no longer pursuing them. Calm, Inko, and the three girls that had been picked up earlier walked out of the APC. As Calm exited the transport he noticed Inaho standing on top of the APC having climbed up through the hatch. Inaho was facing away from them so they couldn't see his face but Calm suspected that it was probably as blank as it always was.

It was then and there that the boy noticed something, he didn't see Okisuke anywhere. Calm then opened his mouth to ask Inaho the question that had been on both his and just about everyone else's lips the whole time "Hey, where's Okisuke?" he asked.

Inaho remained completely silent for a moment or two before he spoke in the same calm and relatively subdued tone he was known for speaking in "He didn't make it. I'm sorry."

Calm Craftman clenched his fists angrily as tears threatened to emerge from his eyes. He couldn't believe what he had just heard. One of his oldest friends was dead at the hands of those bastards. The blond walked over to the side of the APC and proceeded to punch it with his right hand all the while screaming "Damn it! Damn it! Damn it! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!"

The brunette with the chin length hair that Inaho had found earlier watched as Calm mourned his best friend. A look of extreme sadness and oddly enough, guilt was etched on her face. Inaho thought that was very odd. She didn't do anything that to contribute to the death of Okisuke. So why did she look partially guilty?

Eventually Calm stopped yelling even as Inko went to console her friend while Inaho walked over to the near totaled Areion's head and looked for the manual release mechanism. It took a few seconds but eventually he found it on the neck area. The head moved forwards and then moved downwards to the chest, exposing Yuki who was clearly unconscious. Her left arm was bent at an awkward angle but other than that it didn't seem like she was seriously injured.

Inaho was about to go and get the doctor and some of the others to help him get her out of the machine when he heard the Areion's communicator. It was a little difficult to hear what was being said due to the static but it was clearly Lieutenant Marito's voice.

"Hey, Yuki, Marcus. If you can hear this, the Martian Kataphrakt seems to be completely ignoring other evacuees and military personnel. I don't have any ideas as to why but it's clearly after you and those people from earlier, if you can keep it occupied for a while we should be able to evacuate the entire city with minimal losses. Don't you dare be heroes though, Colonel Braddock wants the two of you back alive and in one piece."

Inaho turned to look at his friends and saw that they had heard the message as well judging by the determination on their faces they were probably thinking the same thing he did _'Now it's our turn.'_

* * *

To be continued.


	3. Pawn Takes Rook

The Knights of Earth

Chapter 3

Pawn Takes Rook

Disclaimer: I don't own Aldnoah Zero otherwise this would be canon.

.

* * *

-Landing Castle, Saazbaum's Office, Earth Orbit-

* * *

.

Saazbaum, the leader of the Orbital Knights was having a very, very good day. Reports from his men were coming in that the Terran forces' were being completely smashed all across the globe. True there was a lot of resistance but that was to be expected. That would soon end though, after enough of those insignificant fools had been eliminated they would then bow down to their superiors and beg for forgiveness.

Saazbaum was broken out of his musings of the future when one of his subordinates came over the intercom "My lord, Sir Trillram wishes to speak with you!" he called and judging by the way he acted it was probably important. Saazbaum pushed the talk button and spoke "Put him through."

Within moments, Sir Trillram's face appeared on a large sphere-like screen on one of the walls that was directly across from his desk. Saazbaum stood up from his leather seat and addressed the orbital knight. While proper courtesy was required whenever two Orbital Knights conversed, - even if one of them was in charge of the whole group- now simply wasn't the time.

"Sir Trillram, my Landing Castle will be out of communications range very shortly in a few minutes time, so I'm afraid that I'll have to skip the pleasantries and get straight to the point; have you managed to deal with our rat problem?" Saazbaum asked.

Saazbaum knew the answer before Trillram even uttered a word. It was easy for him to tell given that the prideful smirk and arrogant demeanor that the Orbital Knight so often displayed around everyone else was now absent and in its place was someone who displayed both anxiety and a reluctance to speak.

Eventually though he managed to find his voice "For the most part it was my lord, all but one of the rats managed to escape, but I have her only escape route blocked off and all I have to do is wait for her to show her face and then I'll have her."

Trillram's assurances rang hollow in Saazbaum's ears and the leader of the Orbital Knight's scowl turned from one of annoyance and into one of near complete fury. "Trillram do you have any idea the gravity of the situation here, if any word gets back to the homeland on who really killed Princess Asseylum, all of our planning these past few months will have been for nothing. I highly recommend that you hurry and remove the remaining rat quickly, for your sake. If not I will be forced to conduct a meteor bombardment to make sure the little rat."

Even though the Nilokeras' defenses were near perfect Trillram still didn't want to test them against a full scale meteor bombardment. The pilot of the Nilokeras nodded nervously. Saazbaum allowed himself a small menacing smile to punctuate his next statement "Good. Now go! I expect results the next time we're in contact, so I suggest you finish your task as quickly as you can."

.

* * *

-Shinagawara Academy, Nurse's office-

* * *

.

Considering the sheer size of Shinagawara Academy it was only natural that it would have a decently sized nurse's office but this one was practically a miniature hospital. Equipment for everything save for surgery was ready and available for use. The size of the nurse's office probably had to do with the fact that the school was also capable of being used as a shelter in the event of a natural disaster. Of course what was happening now was not a "natural disaster" but instead was something else that was much worse. A continuation of the war that was supposed to have ended ten years ago.

On one of the occupied beds was a young woman by the name of Yuki Kaizuka. While her injuries weren't life threatening they were still debilitating; her left arm was broken and it was likely she suffered a slight concussion when she was knocked out earlier. For the past couple of hours she had laid in that hospital bed, completely unmoving but now she was starting to stir. Within moments Yuki's eyes gingerly opened up. As they did the young woman let out a pained groan as she started to sit up, rubbing the side of her aching head with her un-bandaged hand as she did so.

Before she could attempt to get off the bed however a pair of hands grabbed her by the shoulders and tried to gently push her back down onto the cot "Easy there miss Kaizuka, you need rest." Yuki recognized the voice of the school's physician; Doctor Yagarai. Despite Yagarai's attempt to make Yuki lay back down she still sat up as best she could "What's going on? Where are we?" she all but demanded.

The one who answered her wasn't Doctor Yagarai but in fact it was Marcus Graves who was leaning up against a nearby wall with his arms crossed over his chest and a bandage wrapped around his head. "We're still in Shinagawara. The infirmary to be precise," he explained before he walked towards the bed Yuki occupied.

"As for why, well that martian bastard is still in the area beyond the tunnels. He's just waiting for us to show our faces again and he's a patient son of a bitch I'll give him that."

"Where's everyone else?" Yuki asked noticing that there was no one else in the infirmary with her. "The other civilians we found are all in the gymnasium. It's probably one of the more secure areas in the school. As for Inaho and his friends; they've just probably just finished breaking into the training grounds to get their hands on the Sleipnirs and other military equipment being stored there. Inaho's working on a plan to destroy the bastard that wiped out Clydesdale platoon."

When Marcus finished his explanation Yuki looked utterly horrified. All but three members of Clydesdale platoon had just been killed. They had state of the art Kataphrakts and weaponry. What hope did Inaho and his friends have with a bunch of measly trainers? Upon seeing the look the young woman had on her face Marcus attempted to try and reassure his comrade "I know what you're thinking and quite frankly I don't blame you but we don't have a lot of options and besides Inaho thinks that there might be a way to circumvent that thing's barrier."

Marcus' attempts to reassure Yuki all but fell on deaf ears as she quickly hopped off the bed despite Doctor Yagarai's protests and marched right up to her friend.

When she was close enough she grabbed him by the collar of his pilot suit and started to shake him violently "Well where in the hell are Inaho and his friends? Talk to me damn it!" she practically screamed in anger even as Marcus started to beg her to stop shaking him so much. It was then that Yagarai got involved as he grabbed Yuki's shoulders and began to make an attempt to pry the woman off of Marcus. It took all of the doctor's strength but eventually he was successful in prying off Yuki.

After steadying himself Marcus looked at Yuki, his eye twitching in irritation "Are you done?" he asked and when he received no answer he assumed that it was a 'yes'. "Good now if you feel so damned strongly about this, then you should know that Inaho should either be in the conference room or in the main hanger."

With so much as a word, Yuki started to march off in the general direction of the hanger. She guessed that Inaho and his friends were probably still there, getting the Kataphrakts ready for battle. As she walked down the corridor that led from the infirmary she ignored the two pursuers who were protesting her actions and telling her to come back and that she should rest.

.

* * *

-Shinagawara, Naval Yard-

* * *

.

Lieutenant Marito was for lack of better terms, exhausted. He had just run for almost three hours nonstop from his destroyed Areion back to the docks where the military was still trying to evacuate citizens onto hovercraft. The entire area was almost completely choked with people desperate to try and get as far away as they could from the battlefield and to someplace that could be considered safe.

Of course it was unlikely that there was anywhere on the planet that could truly be considered safe anymore. Before the communications satellites were blasted out of the sky there were reports of Martian Landing Castles entering the atmosphere above dozens of major cities all over the world. Civilian casualty rates were impossible to tell at this point but there were some estimates ranging from at least ten to twenty-five million.

While Marito was tired from walking almost nonstop he still continued on towards the hanger where most of the people who were in charge of the area had gathered. The first person he saw was an ensign that was having his men get some of his subordinates' Kataphrakt's loaded onto the oversized flatbed truck. When the ensign noticed that Marito was walking towards him and he saw that he was a superior officer, he immediately stopped what he was doing and gave the man a crisp salute.

Marito ignored him and instead got straight to the point "What's going on here?" he asked. The young ensign gave the war veteran a strange look "Sir after all the civilians are on board we're abandoning the area. The Fourth and Fifth fleets were almost completely wiped out and the captain has ordered that we're to evacuate the city before any more of the martian fucks get here."

The lieutenant looked increasingly alarmed "But we can't do that yet. There are people that are still fighting out there!" he practically exclaimed. Before the ensign could respond, another voice called out from behind Marito; "Lieutenant Koichiro Marito you were the last one to arrive here."

Marito turned around and saw a young woman in a navy captain's uniform. She had short brown hair that was done up into a bobcut and had a very serious air about her. Flanking the captain was a female lieutenant with short black hair who was also wearing navy fatigues. Marito and the ensign gave the captain and lieutenant a respectful salute.

The captain turned to the ensign "Soldier go and get your unit packed up and ready to leave, I need to speak with the lieutenant in private. The ensign gave a quick "Yes ma'am!" and then ran over to help his comrades get their Kataphrakts loaded.

Deciding to get some information on who the woman in front of him was, Marito asked "And who are you?"

The woman didn't so much as blink before answering "I'm Captain Darzana Magbaredge of the amphibious assault ship Wadatsumi, 7th Fleet Escort Force." Captain Magbaredge then gestured towards the woman standing next to her "This is my XO Kaoru Mizusaki."

Not wanting to waste any more time on formalities Marito got straight to the point "There are two soldiers that are still out in the Northern District holding back the enemy advance and keeping several stranded refugees safe. Lieutenant Marcus Graves and Warrant Officer Yuki Kaizuka. They're the only reason that this place has still managed to remain secure!"

The captain shook her head "There's a radio jamming field covering almost the entire Shinagawara area. GPS is down also, so even if we were to mount a rescue we wouldn't be able to pinpoint their locations. Right now our responsibilities lie with getting the civilians who are already here out of the combat zone."

Marito looked shocked by this statement "But captain we can't just leave them out there we have to-" he started but was cut off by a familiar voice "Lieutenant Marito calm down." The group then turned towards the entrance to the hanger and saw Colonel Braddock walking towards them, an even expression on his face "We aren't going to just up and leave them out there."

Braddock then looked at the lieutenant and declared in a voice that brokered no argument "Lieutenant Marito take a platoon of Kataphrakts and a landing craft. I want you to begin a search of the city. If anyone gives you any guff about it then you can tell them that it was done on _my_ orders. You have eight hours to find your friends, if you can't locate them by then I want you back here to assist in the evacuation is that understood?"

Marito gave the colonel a thankful look and said "Thank you sir!" before rushing off to go and locate what he needed to begin the search.

With that out of the way Braddock turned his attention towards the captain of the Wadatsumi who looked a tad bit peeved that someone had just gone and countermanded one of her orders. "Colonel with all due respect, you know that we need every person we can get behind a trigger to guard the docks, if we send more troops out to search for people who could very well be dead then that will severely diminish manpower that we desperately need to keep the area secure."

Braddock let out a bated breath "I'm well aware of that captain but I'm not about to go and leave good soldiers behind if there's something I can do about it. Besides recon reports that so far there's only one enemy Kataphrakt out there and it's nowhere near here so I think that we can afford to have one platoon out looking for our lost compatriots."

Captain Magbaredge supposed that made sense but she still wasn't really convinced that they should just risk diminishing their forces just to go out and save a couple of stranded soldiers and a small group of refugees. However, Braddock was the higher ranking officer here so she had to go by his decision whether she liked it or not. Then the colonel looked around to make sure that there wasn't anyone else in the immediate area.

"Captain after we set sail I'm going to need you to take a slight detour to a small island outside of Japan." Magbaredge looked surprised at this. "Our orders are to take them to the sanctuary in Novosibirsk-" she started but the colonel wouldn't let her finish "I know what your orders are captain but I need you to trust me on this. The item on that island could very well be one of the keys we need to win this war."

That definitely got both Magbaredge and Mizusaki's attention. If there was something that could give them the edge over the Martians than they would definitely want it on their side. "Just where is this island located?" Magbaredge asked, both hope and curiosity laced into her voice.

A smile tugged at the corners of Braddock's lips "I'll inform you of the location as soon as we head out. For now though let's focus on the evacuation of the civilians."

.

* * *

-Shinagawara Academy, Restroom-

* * *

.

It had been a while since Inaho and the others had made it into the academy. Even as some of the other refugees had gone and made themselves comfortable in gymnasium, Inaho had been going over every piece of data that he had on the enemy Kataphrakt. Over the past couple of hours Calm and Inko had sent out a number of drones to get a decent reading on the Martian Kataphrakt.

While every single drone they had sent out thus far had been completely destroyed they did at least manage to get several video recordings of the machine. Currently Inaho was sitting on a toilet in one of the stalls in the restroom as he looked over the videos with a small PDA he found in the storage area of the school for the umpteenth time, ensuring that he didn't miss even the most minute of details. The last thing he wanted was for his strategy to be ruined because he overlooked some small detail and not even having to answer nature's call was going to prevent him from doing that.

As Inaho continued to go back over each and every one of the data that he and his friends had collected from the enemy Kataphrakt, someone began banging on the restroom door "Nao are you in there?!" demanded his sister. Inaho looked up from the PDA and towards the closed restroom door.

It seemed as though his sister had finally woken up and had probably heard of his plan to eliminate the enemy Kataphrakt from either Doctor Yagarai or Marcus, "Yes it's me," he said plainly.

"I know it's you that's why I'm here!" she shouted as she continued to bang on the restroom door "Do you have any idea what it is you and your friends are getting into?!"

Inaho looked over some more of the information on the PDA again before he responded to his sister's question "I'm perfectly aware that it seems crazy."

"Then why in the hell are you-" his sister started before Inaho continued over her "For some reason that Martian is obsessed with killing us. So in other words as long as we stick to the school he won't attack the docks or the city proper. Luckily everyone in this part of the city has already been evacuated."

Yuki understood that part what she still didn't get was why he of all people had to head out there in and was about to bring that up when she heard a flushing noise from inside the stall. A few moments later, Inaho had emerged from the restroom stall and saw that both Marcus and Doctor Yagarai had accompanied his sister to confront her little brother. And probably to make sure that she didn't injure her arm even more than it had already been.

Knowing that she should probably find out about what had happened to one of her students, Inaho declared "Okisuke is dead." A look of pure shock settled on Yuki's face.

Okisuke wasn't one of the best students but he was a really good kid and was one of Inaho's closest friends. Hell Inaho, Okisuke and Calm (after the latter's family had moved to Japan) had been near inseparable when they were younger. Yuki even babysat from time to time. For the first time in quite a while, Yuki was rendered completely speechless.

"You told me just a little while ago: 'make decisions as circumstances dictate. If you have to, trust your gut and make the call.' Isn't that what you always tell me Yuki?" Inaho then walked up towards the sink and started washing his hands "I'm convinced that this is one of those times."

"Then I'll do it!" Yuki declared all the while both Marcus and Doctor Yagarai looked at her incredulously. Inaho was about to point out her debilitating injury when Marcus decided to beat her to it, having decided that the time for silence was pretty much over at this point.

"Lady I hate to state the obvious but you're not exactly in the best of shapes to be going out into combat. You have a broken arm for crying out loud! And with that kind of injury you'd be lucky if you ever even managed to aim straight half the time!" the man practically yelled in exasperation.

Inaho looked over at the lieutenant with a cocked eyebrow before looking back over at his sister and continued "Just like Marcus said, I can't let someone who's as injured as you are do this. People are on edge, you need to cheer them up and reassure them that everything will be okay." Inaho then looked up and gave his sister a small smile "That's something that we just can't do."

.

* * *

-Shinagawara Academy, teacher's lounge-

* * *

.

A few minutes later Inaho had lead Marcus and Yuki into the teacher's lounge which was now being used as a makeshift briefing room for Inaho and the rest of his friends. The curtains were down and a projector had been set up facing the room's only bare wall.

"Ever since we've arrived here, we've been gathering as much information as possible on the enemy Kataphrakt. Every time we send out a drone though it gets spotted and eliminated within a couple of minutes. Despite this however we've managed to discover how the barrier works and quite possibly a way around it." Now _that_ managed to catch everyone's attention.

Inaho hooked a small cord leading from the projector into the PDA he had been carrying. As he did Marcus looked at the boy with renewed interest "Oh this I've gotta hear," he declared remembering how literally everything that was thrown at that monstrosity was rendered useless by that damn barrier. From his perspective it was pretty damn clear that save for something earth shaking it was doubtful that

Despite the interruption Inaho continued on "The bullets you two fired at it, they were absorbed, they didn't bounce off." It was more a statement than a question, one that neither Marcus nor Yuki contradicted. "And it's not just bullets, when an active sensor ping hits it, it doesn't bounce back."

The PDA showed a small arc approaching a red dot that was probably supposed to represent the enemy, the arc hit the dot but it was broken even as the rest of it continued onwards.

"This means that infrared, acoustic detection and lasers are almost completely useless," Calm declared with a shrug while Inko clarified a little bit further "There wasn't any echo return."

"It doesn't just absorb kinetic energy but also radio waves and lasers, I think that it's a special characteristic of that wall." With that Marcus and a couple of the others looked a little confused. Why would Inaho refer to that barrier as a wall rather than just, well a barrier?

Seeing the confusion in the group Inaho elaborated further "The energy field that covers its surface, you can call it a barrier I guess." he said with a shrug. "It's a barrier that can absorb anything that it comes into contact with. So if that's the case then how can it see what's on the other side? All information from the outside is blocked by the barrier so it's unlikely that the pilot can see or hear anything outside his cockpit. In my opinion everything on the inside of that barrier is completely black."

This time Inaho brought up another diagram which showed a circle and several arrows marked as: "light", "sound", "radio waves" attempting to pierce through the outer portion of the circle but they were stopped by what was presumably the barrier.

"Wait so if that's the case then how come he can see where he's going or even stand upright if that barrier absorbs everything?" Inko asked confusedly.

"She's got a point if he can't see where he's going how can he know what's going on around him?" asked Calm.

It was then that Inaho dropped another bomb of information on them "Despite how relentlessly he pursued us, he gave up the instant that we were inside that tunnel. I bet that he wasn't he one who was looking outside of the barrier, instead he's most likely using cameras to help him see, probably up in the air. However it's unlikely that he's keeping them too high up in the air as there would be interference from the clouds." It was true, ever since early that morning there had been a thick layer of cloud cover over most of the city.

"The very nature of this Kataphrakt's barrier makes it impossible to be completely covered in it. There has to be a blind spot so that he can send and receive information from his cameras. If we were to destroy all of the cameras it uses then the enemy would be forced to at least partially lower his barrier in order to see what was going on around him."

Marcus stroked his chin in thought. That made sense but still, it was obvious that the only reason that the cameras outside hadn't found them yet was because they were under cover, once they were outside that bastard would start hunting them down again.

"So what's the plan kid? And I hope it's a good one because we've only got one shot at this," Marcus declared. It was at that point that Inaho started to lay down battle strategy.

Two people would take one of the Kataphrakt trailers out of one of the tunnel entrances and drive across town out in the open drawing the enemy's attention away from the tunnel. The group would then fire smoke grenades, masking their movements. From there Inko would find a sniping position and destroy as many of the cameras as she could.

After that the enemy would be forced to either fight blind or lower his barrier. This would enable Inaho and the others to fight him on a more level playing field. If that plan failed, then the truck would lure the enemy Kataphrakt onto a nearby bridge that was over a large body of water. Inko would shoot out the sections of the bridge that the Kataphrakt stood on, sending it into the water. When the water rushed into the barrier, they should be able to find the area of the machine that wasn't covered by the barrier as the water would go around it and not be absorbed by it.

The only problem though was getting someone to use the extra grenade launcher while they rode in the passenger seat of the truck. Sure they could just use the ones they had for the Sleipnirs but they only had two per unit, not nearly enough to provide the smokescreen they needed completely blind the enemy unit if they missed a couple of those cameras.

At least they didn't have the problem of looking for a driver for the truck. The girl that Yuki had rescued earlier had already volunteered her services to help. When Marcus heard that kid talk she seemed very determined, obsessive even. It was very likely that the kid had watched that martian fuck kill someone she cared about. That mere thought caused Marcus to tighten his fists in anger. The only things those fucking savages were interested in was killing those that they thought were beneath them so they could take whatever caught their fancy. Those bastards weren't superior, they were just parasites.

"Excuse me."

A rather determined voice brought Marcus out of his dark musings and caused him and the rest of the group to turn and look at the door. There stood the two girls that Inaho had found earlier in the day. The older one had a very determined air about her but the younger girl seemed very nervous about something.

Marcus ignored Calm who said something about a "Scandinavian babe" and instead focused his attention on the girl that was literally right past the door "I've heard you need someone to help you to fight back against that Orbital Knight. I want to help."

The assembled group looked around at one another before looking back at the two girls "You do realize what it is your asking, right? You could very well end up getting killed if things go wrong."

The girl seemed to think about this for a moment but her determined expression soon returned to her face. "I know that but I feel as though that this is my duty." That comment alone caused Inaho to cock an eyebrow in interest. He hadn't expected that kind of response, but at least they had the person that they needed to help with the plan. Now everything was in place.

While the girl seemed convicted to go through with her statement, her much younger friend looked at her with a look of pure concern "but mil-" she started before the older brunette elbowed her on the side, silently telling her to shut up. A couple of members of the group looked as though they were curious about what the girl was about to say but they figured that it was probably just a younger sister concerned for her sibling or something along those lines.

"What's your name kid?" Marcus asked. "My name is, Annette, it's nice to meet you all," she said before everyone else in the group proceeded to introduce themselves.

With the introductions now out of the way, Calm looked over Inaho and asked "So when do we get started?"

"Now," he declared.

.

* * *

-Shinagawara, Northern District a few minutes later-

* * *

.

For the past hour and a half lieutenant Marito had been searching the northern sector of the city along with Friesian platoon as well as a few students who had volunteered to try and help find their missing friends. It was tedious work to say the least, having to check almost everywhere but it needed to be done.

Given that there was an enemy unit equipped with a seemingly impenetrable barrier in the area, the unit couldn't very well just walk around using loudspeakers to declare that they were part of a rescue team sent to evacuate civilians. Doing that could inadvertently end up giving away their position to the enemy. Considering how quickly and easily Clydesdale platoon had gone down thanks to that monster, there wasn't much hope for the search team if they came across that monster or if it found out where they were.

So far Marito and the others had managed to find a few handfuls of straggling refugees who were still trying to make it to the docks but none of them had any information on where Marcus, Yuki or any of the students were located. At the rate things were going it was unlikely that the search team would be able to find Yuki or the others before the deadline was finally up.

Marito scowled as he heard Friesian 88 report in that he hadn't found anything other than just a few abandoned cars and buildings. The veteran's frustration continued to build as the rest of the members of Friesian platoon gave similar answers throughout their own search zones.

The lieutenant was about to go and take his Areion to another location where the refugees could have gone when he heard one the students who had volunteered to come and help, Nina Klein come over the comm. channel "Lieutenant Marito, uh-sir! Three flares have just appeared in the sky from the north east!"

The newly reinstated lieutenant looked over in the direction that Nina had said the flares were at and sure enough there were a trio of red flares slowly falling back down to earth. Marito knew what three red flares meant. Initiating attack. Instantly Marito's eyes widened in realization as to what his students were about to do.

Marito spoke into his radio "All Friesian platoon members, return to the ship immediately. Helmsman how long will it take us to get there?!" Marito demanded.

"Five-ten minutes tops sir!"

With that Marito's eyes widened and his Areion started to immediately pick up the pace. If those kids were going to take on that Kataphrakt then they would probably end up getting themselves killed. They had to get them out of there before that monster managed to spot them!

.

* * *

-Shinagawara, just outside of the Northern Sector-

* * *

.

The main section of the city was completely deserted even though on any previous day it would have been completely bustling at this point and anyone would be very hard-pressed to find some peace and quiet somewhere in the city. Marcus had found the whole thing was surreal, and a bit disturbing to say the least. It was almost like everyone had just vanished into thin air.

Marcus shook his head and pushed those thoughts out of his mind. He needed to focus on the task at hand, not look at the scenery.

To the man's left were a couple of orange painted Sleipnirs, both of which were being piloted by Calm and Inko the latter of which was carrying a lever action grenade launcher and a sniper rifle. Calm's Kataphrakt meanwhile had a pretty standard loadout that consisted of a 75mm assault rifle with an underslung grenade launcher and a pistol. Marcus himself had the same loadout as calm did seeing as how he was never much good with a sniper rifle.

Calm's voice soon came over the comm. channels "Hey everybody I've spotted that damned pill bug it's a little over a ten blocks to the southeast of our current position."

"Excellent that means that our plan is working," Inaho replied in his normal deadpan voice. Marcus cocked a brow at the response and then shook his head and once again hoped that Inaho knew what he was doing. Sure he was a pretty bright kid and he excelled in combat theories but the reality of it was much different than how it was on paper. So many things depending on the enemy doing exactly what everyone needed them to do. At the moment things were going fine but that didn't mean that something wouldn't change.

Marcus shook those thoughts out of his head and decided to just go with the plan for the moment. If something did manage to go wrong then he'd have keep the kids covered as they made it to safety. That was of course assuming that there was anywhere that could be considered safe now.

"Inko, I need you to head for nav. point delta after you fire off your grenades, Calm go with her and provide support if necessary. Instructor Graves I need you following at least thirty meters away from the truck during the pursuit. I'll let you know when you're needed."

With that having been done, everyone, even the brunette girl seated in the passenger side of the truck (who was using a much smaller hand held launcher), fired smoke grenades into the air. As they did, Graves started praying to whatever deity was out there listening that Inaho knew what he was doing and that everyone would get out of this mess with their lives. Soon everything above two stories was covered in a thick grey smoke that seemed almost impossible to see anything above them without using thermal or electromagnetic vision.

.

* * *

-Shinagawara Academy-

* * *

.

For several minutes, Yuki Kaizuka stood looking out at the direction that her little brother and his friends had gone down and hoped to god that they would all come back safe. She didn't care if they were victorious in the fight or not, just that they all managed to get back safe.

Yuki was about to head back inside the school when she heard loud noise that sounded an awful lot like the Amphibious transports that the military used coming from the shoreline. The young woman turned around and sure enough she saw one such transport heading right in the direction of the school. Right outside of the bridge portion of the ship Yuki could see the outline of Instructor Marito who was holding onto the guardrails with one hand while waving at her with the other.

"Marito!" Yuki shouted in surprise and delight.

.

* * *

-Sir Trillram's Kataphrakt-

* * *

.

In the past few minutes Trillram's mood had changed dramatically since the last remaining rat had shown her face again. At first he was elated that he would finally tie up the last remaining loose end in Lord Saazbaum's plans, and that he would not be forced to see if his Nilokeras' defenses could withstand that of a meteor bombardment. Then that elation turned to anger as a group of orange colored Kataphrakts began firing smoke grenades up into the air like there was no tomorrow.

How were these insignificant little insects able to figure out how to evade the Nilokeras?!

Well it was no matter, even if _his_ Kataphrakt was temporarily blinded there were a few ways for him to eliminate this poorly thought out attempt at rendering this poor attempt at escape useless.

"Those damned insects, if they think that they are able to outwit me that easily then they're even more stupid than they look!" he exclaimed before he activated the Nilokeras' communicator. Slaine had remained in the area after dropping Trillram off for some reason or another. Therefore it was more than likely that he'd be able to hear Trillram.

"Slaine!" he yelled angrily "Are you still there? Answer me now!" he ordered. Within moments Slaine's face appeared on one of the communication screens. Ordinarily Trillram would have taken a rather perverse pleasure in seeing the little bastard so uncomfortable but now wasn't the time for such things. "Uh, lord Trillram, is there a problem?" he asked somewhat nervously.

"There is a transport truck trying to escape. Find it. _Now_!" he roared. Slaine gave a quick "yes milord!" and Trillram then cut the transmission. The time for playing around with his prey had long since passed, Trillram was going to slaughter them all as quickly as he could.

00000000000000000000000000000

Inko and Calm were heading towards their designated position and Inko had already started to set up the sniper rifle. Calm meanwhile was looking around for any sign of any additional enemy forces. So far the plan was going exactly as Inaho had predicted. The damned pill-bug was searching almost blindly for the group, or rather the truck that Rayet was driving. Why the bastard was so interested in killing her, Calm honestly had no idea but he didn't care, so long as Inaho's plan ended in slaughtering the son of a bitch who had brutally murdered Okisuke.

Inko was just about finished setting up the sniper rifle and her Kataphrakt was lying down prone on the ground just a couple dozen meters away from him and had already activated the weapon's EMF (Electro Magnetic Field) vision function.

Just like it sounds, the EMF vision was able to detect electromagnetic currents in machinery, even through walls. Ordinarily it would be unwise to use such equipment in a city type environment due to all the machinery that would be in use. However since the city had been mostly evacuated by this point, the power stations had all shut down. The only reason that Shinagawara's highschool had remained active was because of a series of backup generators that could be activated in the event of an emergency.

Thanks to the sniper rifle's unique little feature, the Martian Kataphrakt's flying cameras stood out like sore thumbs. "There they are I see them!" Inko cried out in surprise, having been afraid that this part of the plan wouldn't work. Within moments Inaho's voice came over the comm. channels "Good, now shoot them."

Inko obliged him and aimed the sniper rifle towards the closest flying camera and pulled the trigger.

A loud boom resounded throughout the area and Inko watched as one of the flying cameras exploded. _'One down,'_ Inko thought as she lined up her sights on another one of the cameras and pulled the trigger. This process continued until one after another the cameras that were being used by the enemy Kataphrakt were all but wiped out.

.

* * *

.

"Those damned insects!" Trillram all but screamed as one after another, his monitors were filled with nothing but static. How could they find the cameras he was using, they were small enough that it would be near impossible to spot them unless they were in close range!

At this point Trillram would have no other alternative than to deactivate the dimensional barrier if he wanted to find out where in the hell that little rat had gone. The Orbital Knight punched in a series of commands into the main terminal and within moments the Dimensional Barrier had been deactivated. Even though the barrier was down the Nilokeras had more than enough armor to withstand most of the munitions these insects could throw at him.

Just after he had finished disengaging his Kataphrakt's barrier Slaine's face appeared on the communications screen again "My lord I've found the truck you're after. Their heading for the bridge that's just a few hundred meters from your current location!"

The arrogant smirk that Trillram almost always wore returned to his face and he nodded to Slaine before proceeding to cut the communications link. With that he started to make his way towards the bridge that Slaine had specified.

In less than a minute Trillram found himself right behind the truck as it started to make its way to the bridge. As Trillram started to close the distance he began swatting at the truck. The driver inside was able to avoid the first few swings but eventually the Nilokeras managed to graze it just enough that it skidded across part of the bridge and finally came to a complete stop.

For a moment or two Trillram smirked at his victory. Soon though the gloating expression on his face became even more pronounced when the door to the passenger side of the van opened. It appeared as though the rat or one of her friends had decided to come out to beg for her life. When the person got out and Trillram managed to get himself a good look at her. It definitely wasn't the last rat that was for sure, instead it was some brunette girl.

Trillram turned on the loudspeakers of his unit, "What's this? Do you intend on pleading pathetically for your life? Well if so, then go ahead and do it already!" He would so enjoy this. After they were done pleading for their lives he would squish them all like the worthless bugs that they were.

"Leave here at once you vicious brute!" the girl demanded. At that Trillram cocked a brow. This certainly wasn't what he had been expecting. Trillram was about to demand to know what in the hell that pathetic little insect was talking about when something that would prove to be the most shocking moment in Trillram's life.

The little brat in front of him was engulfed in an almost blinding flash of light. When the light finally faded her highness, Princess Asseylum Vers Allusia stood in the brunette's place. Trillram's jaw dropped and his eyes widened to the point where one might wonder if they would pop out of his head.

.

* * *

-A few moments earlier-

* * *

.

Thanks to the swipe by the Martian Kataphrakt's oversized arms, the truck had skidded out of control. For several seconds it slid along the pavement of the bridge that connected Shinagawara before it at last managed to finally came to a stop some distance away from the pursuing mecha.

After the truck finally came to a complete stop, Rayet put her foot down on the gas pedal only to find that the truck wouldn't move. Instead there was only a loud groaning noise coming from the rear of the truck. The rear tires must have been damaged when that bastard swung at them. "No, no, no, no," she muttered to herself as she continued to apply pressure on the gas pedal only to receive the same noise as earlier in response.

Rayet looked over at Annette who had pretty much already collected herself and had a determined air about her "Get out of here," Rayet insisted before elaborating further "It's me he's after."

Annette shook her head "The rendezvous isn't scheduled for another thirty to forty seconds, I'll buy us that time!" she declared and before Rayet could say or do anything the other girl opened the door to the truck and headed out.

The red haired girl heard the Orbital Knight demand that Annette start begging for her life only for her to call him a "vicious brute" and to "leave immediately".

Rayet actually cocked a brow at that one. Did she really expect something like that to work? The redhead moved towards the passenger side of the truck to get a better look at what was going on but when she did she found that Annette had been engulfed by a very bright light. When it finally faded, the princess of the Vers Empire stood in Annette's place.

Curiosity pulling at her, Rayet got out of the truck and walked towards the clearly alive member of the Vers royal family. As she did she ignored the screams of disbelief that were coming from the Orbital Knight's loudspeakers. She wanted to demand to know how in the hell the princess was still amongst the living.

The Orbital Knight then said something that Rayet all but knew was coming "Well then, if the rats from earlier were too incompetent to kill the right one, I guess I'll have that honor myself!" he yelled. He started to raise one of his Kataphrakt's massive arms in preparation to squish them like an ant underneath a boot, when there were several loud booms coming from behind him.

The oversized Kataphrakt lurched forwards for a moment before turning around to face a slightly smaller orange Sleipnir that held had an assault rifle aimed directly at it, the barrel still smoking. "Little interloper, you'll pay for this!" the man screamed before the Martian mecha charged at Inaho.

The Sleipnir let loose a torrent of oversized explosive rounds at the Martian Kataphrakt. Several striking the left arm as it moved to protect the chest area of the machine. The damage done to it was easy to spot as much of the armor was already starting to be torn away from the body.

Inside the cockpit Trillram was starting to panic. This wasn't supposed to be happening, Even without the dimensional barrier, the Nilokeras' sheer size was supposed to mean that it had more than enough armor to shrug off such attacks.

The orange Kataphrakt then fired off a round from the grenade launcher at the arm that was blocking the way. The pilot's aim was true and the explosive struck the elbow joint of the left arm causing an explosion big enough to blow everything past the elbow clean off. When the oversized arm fell off its joint, it caused the Nilokeras to trip over its own severed limb.

Trillram had difficulty keeping his machine from falling over due to the sheer size and weight of the now missing left arm. Instead he continued to barrel forwards, this time he wasn't even bothering to use the Nilokeras' remaining arm to defend himself. He had to kill this meddler now before Asseylum or her rat friend had a chance to-

Suddenly a loud boom filled the air and Trillram felt something impact the Nilokeras lower section, hard. It must have been that sniper that had destroyed his cameras earlier! On one of the screens to the left Trillram that showed the current status of the Nilokeras' systems, told him that the left leg had been severely damaged and was no longer functioning. Trillram started to feel the Nilokeras tip forwards and he knew that he was going to crash into the ground.

Within mere moments that prediction came true. The Nilokeras crashed into the asphalt and a number of red warning lights filled the cockpit even as most of the monitors started to fill with static or just go out completely.

Trillram could hear the sounds that the orange Kataphrakt made as it advanced towards him and he began to push and pull at the controls. They wouldn't respond no matter what he did. This couldn't be the end, he couldn't possibly get killed by an upstart just like that!

Mere moments after Trillram began to despair he heard a familiar voice over the communication's screen "Sir Trillram this is Slaine Troyard do you hear me? What's going on? How is Asseylum still alive and why is she on the bridge?!" he called out looking almost concerned at Trillram.

Without even needing to think twice Trillram spoke into the communicator, his voice on the verge of hysteria "Slaine, kill her! Kill that bitch and her friend now! And when you're done kill this filthy upstart!" There wasn't much of a response at first, other than Slaine's face becoming one of pure and complete shock. Eventually he managed to utter the word "What?" in question that Trillram could hear over what sounded like gunfire which was coming from the orange Kataphrakt. It was probably trying to shoot down the Sky-Carrier.

Trillram's scowl deepened and his eyes became more and more wild looking "You heard me you pathetic whelp! If it gets out that she's still alive then my entire clan and several other members of the Orbital Knights will be branded as traitors! Now do something right for once in your pathetic life and shoot them!" he screamed desperately.

A look of realization came over Slaine's face before it became one of pure malice "You were one of the people behind the assassination attempt. You started this whole war!" he yelled anger filling his voice. Slaine glared at him for a few seconds even as Trillram started to threaten the boy again, declaring that he was betraying the Orbital Knights and that he would suffer a traitor's death.

If Trillram had been in a more stable state of mind at the moment he would have realized how ironic and hypocritical such statements sounded. Eventually Trillram stopped screaming at Slaine and the blond haired boy that Trillram had treated so poorly said three simple words "Goodbye sir Trillram." Then the communication was cut and even though Trillram continued to try and scream threats and pleas for mercy into the communications line, it was no use. Slaine didn't respond.

Trillram looked up and saw through one of the last remaining video screens that the orange Kataphrakt was heading right for him. Fear gripped at his heart as he knew what was about to come next.

.

* * *

-Inaho's Sleipnir a few seconds earlier-

* * *

.

Inaho had since ceased shooting at the Martian flying machine. At first he had been worried that the Bat was going to attempt a rescue of the enemy unit. However that wasn't the case, instead the pilot had just continued flying forwards. At first Inaho had thought that the pilot was simply getting ready to come around so that he might have an easier time of hitting him rather than his comrade.

However that seemed to not be the case when it simply kept flying away, clearly attempting to leave the combat zone. Deciding that it wasn't worth the trouble to waste ammunition on an enemy unit that was already out of range, Inaho turned his attention to the downed enemy Kataphrakt in front of him.

The Sleipnir he piloted marched forwards, reloading the assault rifle as he did with a fresh magazine of explosive rounds. Once Inaho was close enough he aimed his weapon downwards at the fallen enemy. He reached over and switched his communicator on to an open channel on the off chance that the enemy pilot would hear him speak. "This is for my friend," Inaho declared stoically as he pulled the trigger on the controls.

Loud booms filled the air as high-explosive rounds impacted the wreck of the pill bug Kataphrakt again and again until all that was left was nothing more than a burning, smoldering chunk of metal.

When the enemy finally defeated, Inaho noticed something very odd on one of the monitors. Next to Rayet was princess Asseylum herself. For a moment Inaho's eyes widened a fraction, not really believing what he was seeing before he accepted that what he saw was indeed reality. His eyes then returned back to their normal, calm shape as he thought _'That is interesting. That is very interesting.'_

 _._

* * *

To be continued.

A/N: I hope this uber long chapter pleases my readers.


	4. Evacuation

The Knights of Earth

Chapter 4

Evacuation

A/N: I'm sorry that this isn't as long as it should be and that it took me so long to write it but moving literally to the other side of the country plus having to deal with other real life issues has been rather difficult.

Disclaimer: I don't own Aldnoah Zero otherwise this would be canon. There you happy you copyright Nazis T_T

.

* * *

-Japan, Shinagawara, Amphibious Assault Ship-

* * *

.

Today it seemed as though had flown by for Inaho Kaizuka. When he had left the relative safety of his sister's apartment complex earlier in the day it had been roughly seven in the morning. Now it was almost three in the afternoon. For Inaho it was always strange how the passage of time seemed to the individual. When there wasn't much going on, it seemed as though time had slowed to a crawl. If there was much to do, then it felt as though time went by much faster.

This made it seem strange that just yesterday there was supposed to be a goodwill visit for peace and prosperity for both the UFE and the Vers Empire. But in less than twenty-four hours it had turned into an all-out war with an assassination attempt on the princess' life. The Martian's hadn't even bothered to conduct an investigation into who was responsible. At first it didn't make any sense. Were the Orbital Knights so idiotic that they just assumed that everyone on the planet was to blame for her death? Or were they simply so bloodthirsty that they were simply looking for any excuse to attack Earth.

Only just a short while ago did things start making some sense to Inaho. Princess Asseylum was still alive and well, despite the assassination attempt. This led Inaho to come up with two theories. Either the assassination attempt was caused by a group of Terran extremists who wanted to send a message by killing the princess, or that the assassination attempt was perpetrated by either a small group of conspirators within the Orbital Knights or the group as a whole was involved. Judging by how the Orbital Knights reacted after the death of the princess it was probably the latter.

Not only did they not even attempt to conduct an investigation into what had happened, but they automatically declared that the entirety of Earth was to blame for her apparent demise and launched an assault on the planet. Inaho wondered if the Orbital Knights were really willing to kill the grandchild of their own monarch just so they could get a chance to claim Earth for themselves.

He never really understood why but most Martians viewed those who were born and lived on Earth as somehow being inferior so it was possible that they considered the princess to be something akin to a "race traitor" for trying to associate with them. Add to the fact that there were many on Vers who felt as though they were entitled to take Earth for themselves and it would probably cause a serious divide between several members of the upper class and the princess who wanted better relations.

"I know that look," the voice of Inaho's older sister declared breaking the young teenager out of his thoughts. Inaho turned from the view of the city and looked directly over at Yuki who was walking towards him, her arm still in a sling. The younger of the Kaizuka siblings looked over at his older sister and asked "Huh, and what look might that be? Everyone I've met seems to think that I only have one look on my face all the time."

Yuki pressed her uninjured hand against her waist and cocked her head to the side with a smile. "Oh, a sister knows. Right now you have your 'I'm thinking about important things,' expression on." Inaho gave a nod "I was thinking about the Orbital Knights and why they decided to commence a full scale invasion without so much as investigating the cause of their princess's death," he explained.

There was a small scoff causing Inaho and his sister to look over at Marcus who was standing nearby, his arms were crossed at his chest and there was a deep scowl on his face "I think that it's pretty obvious why those Martian fucks have done what they've done," he declared.

"No matter how you slice it they are and always have been a cancerous tumor at the best of times. All they do is take and take and take until there's nothing left to take and then they move onto a new source of resources for them to leech off of, probably killing the people who own whatever they want because they're somehow inferior in that they weren't born on the same planet."

Inaho noticed that as Marcus continued to rant on about the Martians, "Annette" started to look more and more crestfallen. Before Marcus could continue with his rant, Marito walked up to him and put a hand on his shoulder "Marcus, we get it you don't like the Martians. Could you tone it down a little?" Marito asked having grown a little exasperated with the ranting. Marcus nodded before letting out a bated breath.

"Fine," he said although he clearly wanted to let out more of some of his anger towards the enemy via ranting especially since he wasn't able to kill any more of them for the time being. Seeing as how there wasn't much else for him to do at the moment, Marcus started to make his way towards the inside the landing craft.

As Marcus went back inside Inaho looked over at "Annette" again and saw that she was very crestfallen. It was understandable, after all Asseylum was trying to act as a bridge between two worlds only now it seemed as though that that hope had been just been destroyed thanks to the Orbital Knights.

Inaho wondered briefly if he should say something to the girl later but he knew that if he tried to talk about it with her now and someone overheard him it would only make things more complicated. True they probably wouldn't come to the conclusion that she was the Princess of Vers but they would be under the impression that she was either someone from Vers who was visiting Earth or was sympathetic to Vers. None of those impressions would end up leading to a very good for the girl.

Maybe he could talk to the girl after they got someplace a little more private. After all, Inaho knew he wasn't very good with interacting with other people as his friends and older sister had almost always described him as being "as blunt as a sledgehammer" or something similar when it came to interacting with other people in a social setting.

Inaho was then broken out of his thoughts when he heard one of the crewmembers of the ship make their way towards him and his sister and gave her a respectful salute. "Warrant Officer, Kaizuka. We just got a transmission from Colonel Braddock, he said he wants to speak with you, Warrant Officer Graves, Lieutenant Marito and your younger brother personally the instant that you return to base."

Both siblings looked at each other even as a sinking suspicion developed Yuki's gut about what the good Colonel wanted to talk to them about.

.

* * *

-Cruhteo's Landing Castle, Bridge-

* * *

.

Cruhteo was not a very happy man at the moment, though granted happiness was something that he hadn't really felt in recent months. But now he was exceptionally displeased. Cruhteo had been on his way to report to Count Saazbaum on the status of the invasion of Tokyo when one of the Landing Castle's lower ranking officers ran up to him and informed him that Slaine was on his way back with an update on the assault on Shinagawara.

The Orbital Knight immediately headed for the bridge. As he walked he felt a slight sense of concern course through him. Cruhteo knew that Trillram would _never_ allow a lowly Terran to report to him in his place. For Trillram and to a lesser extent Cruhteo himself it would have been an insult if one of the other members of the Orbital Knights had used a Terran to deliver a message. Something that Trillram would have preferred to have avoided, especially considering how he was so eager to repay Cruhteo for being able to stay at his Landing Castle these past several years.

When Cruhteo had finally arrived back at the bridge, Slaine's face was on the main monitors. The boy looked nervous about something, more so than was normal anyways. Cruhteo gave Slaine the same intimidating look he always gave him and demanded "What news do you bring to me, Slaine? And why did Trillram send you instead of simply contacting me himself?"

If it were possible Slaine actually looked even more nervous than he already had been "I-I was ordered to return to the Landing Castle by Lord Trillram sir. Shortly after I brought him to the battlefield he was engaged by several groups of Terran Kataphrakts. I offered my assistance him in eliminating them but he stated that he 'didn't need help from that of a lowly Terran' and ordered me to return to the Landing Castle. I was also instructed to inform you that he would contact you the moment that the city was secure for our main forces."

Cruhteo supposed that made sense. Trillram would never have accepted help from a lowly Terran while in combat. His pride as an Orbital Knight simply would not allow it to happen. In fact many amongst the Orbital Knights had made the claim that they would rather die than allow a Terran to come and rescue them. Still though he would talk to Trillram as soon as he could to confirm the situation at Shinagawara.

Still he couldn't very well punish the boy (at least not until he could confirm whether or not he was hiding something) "Very well Slaine, land at once and return to your normal duties in the Landing Castle unless I have further need of you." Oddly enough Slaine still seemed rather nervous even though it was obvious that he wasn't going to be punished. Cruhteo's instincts told him that there was something else going on, but what, he didn't know.

Perhaps it would be for the best for Cruhteo to keep a closer eye on the boy, at least for the time being. With that having been done, Cruhteo cut the transmission to Slaine's Sky Carrier. As he turned to leave the bridge he looked over at one of the officers. "Have Trillram's Argyre and several Orcus units ready to sortie within the next few hours. If Trillram sends no word in the next four hours they are to move in and continue where Trillram left off."

There was a crisp; "Yes my lord!" from the officer as he went about informing the Orcus teams that they were to remobilize within the next few hours.

.

* * *

.

As Slaine disembarked from the now fully docked Sky Carrier, he saw several maintenance crews going over several of the other Kataphrakts in the hanger. He saw the Argyre and most of the Orcus units that loyal to Count Cruhteo. In the case of the latter Kataphrakts, they were all being repaired or rearmed. It was obvious to the blonde that they were getting ready to go back out into combat again sometime in the near future. Where they would be deployed to, Slaine was not entirely sure but it was more than possible that at least some of them would head to Shinagawara once Cruhteo realized that they would not be hearing anything from Trillram again.

Slaine just hoped that Cruhteo would buy his explanation for the lack of communications between Trillram and the Landing Castle would work when they finally found what was left of the bastard's Kataphrakt. In the meantime though, Slaine had to try and find a way to get a message out to Emperor Rayvers about how his granddaughter was still alive and that the assassins were among the Orbital Knights not the Terrans.

When that happened surely the Emperor would order an end to all hostilities on Earth. At least until an investigation showed that the Terrans were completely innocent of any wrongdoing. Still though it would be a good idea if he could figure out who he could or couldn't trust with the information that Princess Asseylum was still amongst the living.

After all Trillram was a seemingly loyal vassal of Count Cruhteo and he had been part of the plot to assassinate Asseylum. Did that mean that Cruhteo was in on this plot as well? Maybe he was simply one of the more opportunistic Orbital Knights and was taking advantage of her highness' death. Then again Cruhteo could also be genuinely loyal and was simply seeking vengeance for her death.

For now he would have to continue to play the dutiful servant towards Cruhteo, at least until he was sure of the man's loyalties. If Slaine could find some sort of evidence proving that Cruhteo had nothing to do with the attempted assassination on Asseylum then he would have to try and think of some way to convince him to try to speak with Emperor Rayvers and get him to order a ceasefire.

It wasn't an easy task that was for sure, but Slaine had to do it. He had to stop this war and save Asseylum no matter the cost.

.

* * *

-Shinagawara Docks, Hanger 12, Sometime Later-

* * *

.

A few hours ago, the docks at Shinagawara were completely abuzz with activity as the refugees were trying to get into the ships that would take them to some safe haven as far away from the battle lines as possible. Unfortunately for them, there probably wasn't a single piece of land that wasn't being contested by the Orbital Knights. Their hope of getting somewhere away from the Martians was little more than a pipe dream.

However there was at least one individual that wasn't thinking about their own safety.

For the past several minutes, Yuki had been pacing back and forth angrily gripping herself in a vice. The young woman could scarcely remember a time when she felt so angry at another person. Just a few meters away from her, Marcus was leaning up against a cargo container, a neutral expression about him while Marito was sitting down nearby drinking a little bit of booze from his flask. The two had been watching their friend seething for the past several minutes and to be honest, he was getting a little bit tired of it.

"Yuki, could you please try and relax a little bit?" Marcus requested. When Yuki responded by sending him a heated glare his way, Marcus wondered if he should have kept his mouth shut. Her glare didn't last long as she started ranting "I can't believe that Braddock would do that, he promised me that he wouldn't!" she all but shouted.

"Braddock is a colonel in the military and right now he needs capable soldiers under his command. Besides that promise was only good when there wasn't a massive invasion going on and you know that."

"Don't tell me that you're defending that kind of decision!" Yuki shouted. "I'm not dammit! But I understand his reasoning and like it or not there is nothing I can do about it! He's a Colonel and I'm just a Second Lieutenant again, remember?"

Yuki did remember, and she didn't like any of it.

Flashback

 _It had only been a few minutes since Inaho and the others had returned from northern Shinagawara. Most of the city had been evacuated by that time but there were still some evac teams going throughout the town to see if there were any stragglers that hadn't yet made it to the evacuation zone._

 _Upon arriving at the docks Yuki and the others had been escorted by a group of MPs to one of the warehouse management office. Colonel Braddock had been using this as his own temporary office until the UES Wadatsumi arrived to evacuate the civilians and remaining military personnel._

 _When they arrived at Braddock's temporary office, the man himself was sitting down, going over some paperwork with a calm and rather neutral expression about him. It looked as though he was treating this invasion as nothing more than a standard day at the office. When Braddock heard the door open he looked up and saw Yuki, Marcus, Marito and Inaho standing in the doorway even as the MPs held it open for them._

" _Please come in," said the Colonel but by the way his tone sounded, it seemed more of an order than a request. When Inaho and the others did as they were told and entered the small office, the MPs closed the doors behind them with a rather loud creak followed by a dull 'thud'. Once they were fully shut, the Colonel looked directly at the four and spoke again "Inaho Kaizuka I have received some rather interesting information regarding the incident at Shinagawara and I would like to clear a few things up."_

 _The way the colonel spoke was cold, calculating and completely devoid of any emotion but there was something hidden underneath it all, a kind of curiosity. "During the attack on Shinagawara by the enemy Kataphrakt you and your friends decided to take it upon themselves to try and destroy the enemy unit. Using the data you yourself had managed to gather from observing the enemy unit and after you managed to 'liberate' the training Kataphrakts from the academy you were able to create a workable strategy that would eliminate the enemy machine. Is this accurate?"_

 _Inaho gave his answer with that same stoicism he almost always displayed to everyone "Yes sir that is all accurate." With that the colonel gave a smile that reminded Yuki and Marito of a hungry predator looking for its prey. "I see." He said his smile widening before turning his attention to the other three individuals in the room. "Instructors please remind me. What is your opinion on Inaho Kaizuka's performance in Kataphrakt training?"_

Marimo, Yuki and Marcus looked at one another for a second before Marcus spoke "Well, he was always managed to score the top marks when handling a Sleipnir, even when he was starting out he already seemed to have an idea on how to pilot one and within a couple of sessions was handling it like he was born to pilot it."

 _Sure enough each of the instructors gave a similar view of Inaho's talents inside a cockpit of a Kataphrakt. After a few minutes of recounting Inaho's successes during the training exercises at Shinagawara Academy, Colonel Braddock signaled for the three instructors to stop._

 _The colonel gave all four a glance before he said with an air of finality "I'm enacting the Conscription Act: Article Two. From this moment forwards Inaho Kaizuka is now a Second Lieutenant for the UFE. As for you Second Lieutenant Marcus Graves, you are now being reinstated to active duty along with Warrant Officers Kaizuka and First Lieutenant Marito."_

 _At that moment, Yuki's desire to speak out against this decision, to beg the colonel to reconsider conscripting her younger brother into the military was overwhelming. While the military side of her wanted her to keep her mouth shut about the whole thing but there was another part of her, the concerned older sister who didn't want to see her only remaining family member get hurt wanted to object, to try and get Colonel Braddock to reconsider his decision._

 _It seemed as though the good colonel had noticed how…off Yuki's posture was and decided to address it before it got out of hand. "Is there a problem, Warrant Officer Kaizuka?" the man asked in an icy tone. For a moment, Yuki gritted her teeth but managed to bite back anything that would be disrespectful to her commanding officer "No sir," she said, her anger still managing to slip into her words like water through a crack._

 _Thankfully though, Braddock just ignored that little slip up on Kaizuka's part. "Good. Now Warrant Officer, Lieutenant I want you both to report to Doctor Yagarai immediately and have your injuries looked at. I won't have my soldiers working if they're incapable of doing so."_

End Flashback.

After speaking with Yagarai, he had cleared Marcus fit for duty and had attached an exoskeletal arm brace to Yuki Kaizuka's broken left arm. Now Yuki could move her arm just as easily as when it wasn't broken but if she did anything too overly strenuous to her left arm then it would slow the healing or even do permanent damage to her arm. As a result she was put onto a backup piloting roster. Of course being able to move her left arm again was a joy that was smothered by the fact that her little brother had just been conscripted into a war that he shouldn't have any part in.

"It's strange though." Marcus muttered to himself, looking rather thoughtful and breaking everyone out of their thoughts. By this point, Marimo had long since taken a swig from his flask and had been watching the whole exchange with

For a few seconds Marcus was silent but then he let out a bated breath and spoke "If someone told me that he conscripted a couple of kids a while back, I would have told them that Braddock would never do something like that. It just wasn't in his character. But he's changed significantly since I last saw him. It was almost like I was looking at a completely different person."

"Still though, he must value your input on some level at least don't you think that you could try talking to him?" Yuki asked. Marcus scoffed "Even if I were to try and talk to him out of it, it wouldn't work. Whenever Braddock makes a decision on something, nothing can dissuade him from it."

There was only silence from the rest of the group as Yuki desperately tried to think of some way to get around letting Colonel Braddock conscript her only remaining family into the military.

.

* * *

-Shinagawara Docks, Landing Carrier-

* * *

.

Roughly fifteen minutes earlier, Inaho had gotten out of that meeting with Colonel Braddock and began heading back to the Landing Carrier that his friends and the other refugees from the Academy had been herded onto. Inaho was very eager to go and check on his friends, including that "Annette" girl. The young pilot had more than a fair number of questions that he would need her to answer.

As he entered the landing carrier's secondary storage area which had been turned into a makeshift living quarters for the Shinagawara refugees. Countless cots and sleeping bags had been set up for the refugees who were trying to reassure their family and friends, that this hard time would pass by soon enough their lives would return to the way it was before the war started.

Inaho however continued on his search for one particular person.

As he walked he also looked around for his friends, he would want to speak with them as well, to see if he could discern how they were doing. While he had always had a lot of difficulty expressing his emotions, Inaho did feel genuine concern for the wellbeing of his friends and honestly wanted all of them to be as safe as possible.

But he knew that they probably wouldn't be safe for quite some time. The only thing he could do was make sure that his remaining friends survived the battles to come.

Inaho refused to let any more of his friends die, and he certainly wasn't about to lose the only remaining family he had left in this world.

Eventually Inaho found "Annette", "little sister" and Rayet, they were near the edge of one of the cargo holds and were talking with one another. About what, Inaho couldn't really say as he was too far away to hear the trio talking. So he quickly made his way over there to see what was going on. As Inaho approached, the three girls quickly noticed him and approached.

When they were close enough so they would be able to hear one another over all the other people that were talking (loudly) in the cargo hold. The one who spoke was "Annette" she said "Please, come with me, we need to speak, in private."

From there Inaho was all but dragged out into a nearby corridor that was located well enough away from any foot traffic. That way it was unlikely that they would be stumbled upon by anyone. Besides the corridor was between two bulkhead doors. They could close both of them easily if necessary for added privacy, which was something that they would no doubt need if the fact that "Annette's" "sister" was already starting to close them was anything to go by.

Once the two bulkhead doors were closed, a bright light enveloped "Annette" and in an instant, the brunette was gone, and instead stood Princess Asseylum of Vers herself. While Inaho had already seen the girl in her true form earlier it was still somewhat surreal to see that he was nearby royalty of what was effectively an enemy nation. While the girl who had been accompanying the princess seemed reluctant to let her liege reveal herself to what were effectively commoners.

"Let's try this again," Asseylum said with a warm smile "My name is Asseylum Vers Allusia, the granddaughter of Emperor Rayvers." Asseylum then gave the two teens a respectful curtsey, "It's a pleasure to meet the two of you."

At that point Inaho tilted his head to the side slightly "So this is the real you?" he asked. Asseylum nodded "Yes, from what I've been told this is an optical camouflage that uses holographic imaging." Inaho had already surmised as much considering everything but it never hurt to have some kind of confirmation on the matter.

From there it wasn't all that hard to deduce what had happened with the princess the day before. Rayet gave the blonde princess an almost aloof look "So then the Princess Asseylum that everyone saw killed yesterday was a double." It was more a question than a statement but for some reason Asseylum had a rather guilty expression on her face.

While Asseylum was reluctant to say anything, her ever faithful attendant, Eddelrittuo decided to elaborate further on the matter "Her highness wasn't feeling well the day of the parade. She had been having problems adjusting to Earth's gravity so the head of the security detail decided to use a double instead."

It was probably the luckiest break a person could receive but it was obvious that Asseylum felt very guilty about how an innocent had been killed in an attempt on her life. Anyone with even a shred of a conscience would feel at least slightly saddened that someone else had gotten killed in a case of mistaken identity. Of course that wasn't to say that it was her fault. No one could have predicted that something like this would happen as a result of a goodwill visit.

"So it wasn't a hypothesis after all," Inaho muttered mostly to himself.

A look of desperation was on Asseylum's face "W-when my grandfather learns that I'm still alive, he's sure to call an end to this insane war without delay."

At that point Inaho decided to point out the obvious problem with that plan "That won't work," he stated making everyone around him look at him strangely so Inaho decided to elaborate a little further.

"There is a massive jamming unit that has been put into place by the Orbital Knights. It's likely that they are attempting to keep the UFE military from communicating with each other. We can't use telecommunications either as they've destroyed most of the satellites in orbit along with the ground based cables, so using the internet to try and send a message is out of the question too."

At that Asseylum seemed even more crestfallen than she had earlier, "But it is possible we can get you to a facility that may be able to get a message out to the Vers government. I'll see if I can talk to my sister or one of the other officers here." Inaho was about to leave and do just that when Eddelrittuo exclaimed "You can't do that!"

Inaho stopped himself from leaving to hear what the youngest of the group had to say "There is a Vers spy hidden amongst the Terrans! The spy is in league with the assassins and doubtlessly wants nothing more than to see her highness dead!"

Even as the princess' handmaiden spoke, Rayet's eyes widened slightly and she wondered how they could have possibly known that there was a Vers spy involved in the assassination attempt.

Asseylum gave a bow to the two that she had just entrusted with her secret. She seemed to be on the verge of tears regarding the entire situation but when she spoke she still managed to remain very calm "I deeply apologize for bringing you into our problems. I beg you to please keep this matter between us for now."

While Inaho was reluctant not to bring this matter to Colonel Braddock or even to his sister he would for the time being keep his mouth shut regarding the princess. Rayet however had no real problem keeping quiet on the mater. She still couldn't risk anyone tying her to the assassination attempt at the moment.

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* * *

-Outside of Shinagawara Docks a short while later-

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The sun had already finished setting on the city of Shinagawara, both literally and figuratively. There wasn't a soul left in the city proper making it little more than a massive ghost town. Besides given the Orbital Knights' casual destruction of almost everything that they laid eyes upon when they arrived on Earth it was doubtful that there would be a building even left standing by the time they had achieved complete control over the city. Those that were now hold up in the landing craft waiting for the Wadatsumi already knew that they would probably never see their homes intact ever again.

Just outside the docks, several platoons of Kataphrakts had been patrolling since mid-day, keeping any unwanted guests away from the harbor and the civilians that had gathered in the ships nearby. However given that they were still under heavy jamming anything other than short range communications was nearly impossible so they were unable to go very far out with any of their patrols. The same went for their sensor equipment as well other than the visual equipment. At best all they were able to pick up were little more than a mass of ghost readings.

The only way that they would ever be able to find any hostiles is if they saw them with their own two eyes beforehand.

This fact was one of the main reasons that a full platoon of Orcus Kataphrakts and their leader an Orbital Knight by the name of Vlad was able to get so close to the docks without being detected by the Terran forces. Vlad himself had no doubts however that he would be able to get this close without someone noticing their approach even if there hadn't been any jamming at all. Terrans were such simple, pathetic creatures that it was actually quite surprising that they had managed to put up this much of a fight up until to this point.

While Vlad hadn't managed to get into contact with Sir Trillram as of yet it was likely that the man had simply decided to amuse himself while hunting down straggling Terran military forces. They would look for him as soon as they had scoured the last remaining group of Terran filth from the city. Which as luck would have it, seemed to be very close by.

Vlad turned his head to face the rear monitors of his craft and saw the Orcus units waiting patiently behind him. The pilot of the Argyre wasn't one to make fancy speeches like many of his fellow nobles so he said a few simple words that would carry the meaning well enough "Take control of the docks, and leave nothing in your wake!"

With that having been said, the Argyre charged forwards to the enemy lines along with a full platoon of Orcus Kataphrakts following close behind.

* * *

To be continued.

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A/N: What is an Orcus you may be asking yourselves? Well you'll find out just what it is next chapter.

I will however tell you the origin of the name. It, like most Vers Kataphrakts is named after a real live Martian geographic location. As for why I put them in, the answer is very simple. I didn't think that it was very realistic that the forces of Vers would be able to take control of large areas of land using only ONE mecha. No matter how powerful their units may end up being, it's still just a single machine and therefore can't take over large amounts of territory so it only makes sense for the Orbital Knights to have some kind of support machine like the Stygis fighters from the anime only for ground combat.


	5. Duel

Aldnoah Zero Knights of Earth

Chapter 5

Duel

A/N: *looks embarrassed* Really sorry for the delay but I hope that the content makes up for it

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-Earth, Shinagawara Docks-

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Darkness had fallen upon the city of Shinagawara shortly after the sun had finished setting. If this were any other day it wouldn't make a difference as countless streetlights and lights coming from inside buildings would have kept the city very well illuminated. Now though it was almost completely pitch black outside of the docks. The only light came from the docks as the soldiers and Kataphrakts continued their patrols throughout the immediate area.

At least that was what was going on until the telltale sounds of heavy caliber gunfire echoed throughout most of the docks. Inside the landing ship, the refugees held what families and other loved ones they had close, and hoped that the fighting wouldn't reach them until after they had already finished leaving the area. Only they were wrong, and now it seemed as though the fighting had once again all but reached them!

Outside the perimeter, several of the Vers Kataphrakts had already engaged the UFE units that were guarding the docks. The UFE Kataphrakts fired from the relative safety of behind the buildings. The enemy units however seemed more than content to simply charge their ranks, while firing their weapons with seemingly reckless abandon. Unlike the units from before these hostiles didn't even seem close to have the same level of power that the first machine they sent in did.

Hell their overall shape and size looked like something out of a bad science fiction movie. They had a dome shaped body with a pair of semi-armored legs sticking out from underneath it. The thing didn't have any arms or (god forbid) mechanical tentacles other than a small pair of pincer like things that were mounted just underneath the front of the machine's dome shaped body. Instead there were several weapon mounts that held what were quite obviously similar to the 90mm machine guns that most UFE units used. While these weapon mounts were capable of aiming in different directions it was impossible to do so in a wide variety of angles.

This lack of flexibility when it came to being able to aim their weapons meant that if they could be flanked then they could easily be dispatched. While their armor was relatively decent compared to most UFE Kataphrakts it still wasn't enough to truly stand up to the 90mm cannons that were standard armament to units like the Dyaus, the Areion or the Sleipnir and certainly not the much heavier weaponry that the Embarr packed.

In fact the Embarrs that carried arm mounted mini-guns or anti-armor cannons completely obliterated the Orcus units that were advancing on their position. Massive holes riddled the Martian machines' hulls and some of them had even had their legs blown off from the 90mm grenades that were launched at them. Hell some of the pilots in the defending platoons were starting to wonder how in the hell the Martians had made any progress if this was all they had to throw at the UFE military forces.

As the defense continued, one of the pilots who had been assigned to aid in the defense on the eastern perimeter, Marcus was enjoying himself thoroughly while killing the Martian fucks that had decided to rush at the base like a pack of lunatics. He was back in the piloting seat of an Areion and even though he had felt a small amount of apprehension at fighting a large group of Martian Kataphrakts given the strength of the one that had singlehandedly wiped out the last platoon he was assigned to, he was genuinely surprised that these War of the World's rip-offs could even move properly let alone fight.

Soon apprehension and anxiety gave way to satisfaction as wave upon wave of Vers Kataphrakts were destroyed by him and the other defenders. In fact it was actually quite easy. The enemy forces simply kept charging straight at their ranks like a pack of idiots, resulting in their numbers getting gunned down each and every single time. Sure they tried to use their ranged weaponry but they didn't even try to aim it properly resulting in very few casualties being inflicted on the side of the UFE.

Marcus' Areion opened up on the hostile units with his standard issue 90mm cannon. The high explosive shells tore gaping holes in the enemy machines making several of them either explode or simply fall completely still due to the damage that had been inflicted on them.

And these psychos called themselves the superior race? The evacuation zone was prepared for a full on tactical assault, but instead what Marcus and the other Kataphrakt platoons got were a bunch of Martian dipshits running head first into enemy territory. It didn't matter if you had a superior piece of technology if you lacked the intelligence to utilize it in an effective manner.

One of the H.G. Wells rip-offs fell close to Marcus' position near one of the destroyed buildings and while at first it seemed as though it was trying to get back up it soon stopped moving. Interestingly enough there was a voice coming in over the comm. channels "Please, please stop I surrender I surrender!" the pilot of the machine yelled, begging pathetically for his life. "Please show me mercy!" he begged.

Marcus wanted to spit in disgust. So much for Martian superiority. They were nothing but a band of cowards, when someone was weak and helpless they flaunted their title of being the "master race" but when someone fought back they cowered like the weak bullies they were.

The man piloting the Areion narrowed his eyes at the fallen Vers machine, "Was any mercy shown to the people you and your friends slaughtered?" he asked rhetorically as he aimed his weapon directly at the cockpit section of the enemy machine and fired into the cockpit section of the machine, utterly vaporizing the operator upon impact.

' _Disgusting tumors.'_ Marcus thought in contempt. He then brought his weapon back up and resumed firing at the enemy units that were still around and riddled yet another Martian war machine with armor piercing rounds sending another Martian soldier straight to hell where they belonged.

As the fight continued more and more of the Martian Kataphrakts continued to fall. Still though the UFE defenders didn't come out unscathed. Several of the defending units were hit by hostile fire and soon they found themselves taking casualties. Several Dyauses and Areions found themselves struck by hostile fire and quickly went down in flames.

However this did little to deter the defenders who merely fought harder than they had before. Marcus knew that these mother fuckers wouldn't set one foot inside that dock. As the battle continued the radio crackled and a panicked voice came over the comm. channels. Marcus didn't know who it was as he didn't have the chance to meet all that many of the remaining Kataphrakt pilots.

"This is Joust Platoon we are under heavy attack in sector 12 and we've more than half our number! We can't hold out against this thing we need help now!" Sector 12 was very close to the section of the docks where the civilians were being evacuated at. If it fell then those Martian animals would slaughter the civilians.

"Don't worry Joust, this is Lieutenant Marcus of Lokai platoon we read you and we're on our way!" Marcus declared before he turned to the rest of the platoon he was in charge of "Gato, you and Miller are with me, the rest of you are to hold this line no matter what!" With that one of the Embarrs and Dyauses broke off from the defense and started to follow Marcus towards the zone that the distress call was coming from.

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* * *

-Shinagawara Docks, Sector 12-

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A short while earlier it appeared to most of the refugees as though the fighting was over and that they would be safe for the moment. They couldn't have been more wrong. Earlier gunfire started to erupt as combat started once again, only this time it seemed as though it was all around them. People were already starting to panic and things were only getting worse as the fighting continued.

Near the bulkhead that lead to the outside of the craft was Inaho and several of his friends. After Inaho's conscription they wanted to spend as much time as they could with their friend before he was forced into active duty the next morning. Hell, when he arrived to meet them he was already in a military flight suit. Apparently he was expected to get out into combat if things started to take a turn for the worse. While the regular forces didn't have any extra units available, Inaho said that he'd be more than comfortable in a Sleipnir than any of the other Kataphrakts on hand anyways.

Some of the other members of the military were a little bit confused when they found out that the boy would prefer a training unit over one made for the frontlines. However they weren't going to question it at the moment, they thought that boy probably just didn't want to take away one of the units that were being used by the pilots that were patrolling the frontline or something of that nature. The truth was though, that he considered the Sleipnir one of the greatest machines that had ever been made.

Given that the Sleipnir had lighter armor, it meant that it was more agile and while the Dyaus was even more agile its controls were much more sensitive in comparison. This meant Inaho would need time in order to get adjusted to the machine's control systems, time that they really didn't have. Therefore Inaho would pilot the Sleipnir for the time being.

The sounds of explosions began to get closer and closer to the docks and Inaho knew that it was only a matter of time before the fighting reached them. No matter what some of the soldiers who were trying to keep the other evacuees from panicking said. Inaho looked outside the bulkhead that lead to where the Sleipnir Kataphrakts were being kept.

During the drills in school, Inaho and the other students were trained to bring their training Kataphrakts online in less than thirty seconds. Inaho's record was almost fifteen seconds, mainly because even during the timed simulation where fake gunfire and explosions were going off, he still managed to keep calm. Most of the other students eventually did as well but they all usually had a number of pitfalls before then.

As the gunfire grew closer, Inaho continued to stare out he open bulkhead and soon enough his friends came closer to see what it was he was doing, including a certain incognito princess and her escort who were mostly remaining out of earshot.

Inko and Calm looked as though they were about to ask Inaho what he was doing so close to the doorway that lead out into the battlefield when another explosion resounded, this one much closer than the previous ones had been. Without warning the top half of an Areion struck one of the neighboring landing craft with an almost earth shattering crash. The bridge tower of the ship was completely caved in and if there was any hope of survivors it went up in smoke, quite literally as the Areion exploded, sending a shower of metal into the neighboring naval ships.

Inaho heard the sounds of the other refugees begin to panic even further and he wondered why the landing craft hadn't yet tried to leave the combat zone. Sure the Kataphrakt/aircraft carrier hadn't shown up yet but the safety of the civilians was the number one priority according to UFE military doctrine during an evacuation.

Just a few seconds later, there was something else that got everyone's attention. Another Martian Kataphrakt, this one much different than the one that Inaho and the others had destroyed earlier in the morning, was making its way directly towards them. The appearance of this one was much less bulky and instead had a large body that was at least a little bit thinner than the one that had been fought earlier in the day. The machine had a cobalt color scheme, its legs were incredibly thin while the rest of the body was far bulkier and it almost made Inaho wonder how the machine was able to stay balanced and walk around.

In the right hand of the machine was a single sword hilt that was constantly generating what appeared to be a burst of energy, or as Calm put it so eloquently "Is that a beam katana?" Everyone had trouble discerning whether or not Calm was afraid or awestruck by the machine's weapons.

Just a little further away was "Annette" and her friend, the two were whispering to one another but Inaho managed to catch her saying "I'll talk to this knight."

Inaho knew that such an action would probably only end in failure. At the current moment, this conspiracy to start a war with Earth had an unknown amount of people participating in it. It could range from the entirety of the Orbital Knights to only a select few, but until they had more information, they had to assume that _every_ member of the Orbital Knights was involved in the assassination attempt.

The newly conscripted teenager looked over at "Annette" and said "Don't worry," he said almost tonelessly "We'll take care of it." Annette and her friend looked at Inaho and it took a moment for the pair to figure out just what he planned on doing. Despite hearing what he had just said, Annette and her friend were both still somewhat surprised and in the case of the former, extremely worried, when Inaho made his way out of the ship and began walking towards the Sleipnirs that were parked on the deck of the landing ship.

Calm and Inko immediately started after him as they started to ask what the hell he was doing when Inaho looked directly at his female classmate and asked "Inko can you operate that?" all the while gesturing towards the crane that moved around the large cargo containers around. At first Inko didn't really know what it was Inaho wanted her to do with the crane but quickly realized what it was that her friend had in mind for the enemy Kataphrakt and began to make her way towards it while Inaho and Calm headed for the Kataphrakts.

-UFE Landing Carrier, Bridge-

Captain Magbaredge and the rest of the bridge staff had been trying to get the landing craft to move from its docking berth with absolutely no success at all. The instant that the neighboring craft exploded, chunks of metal had been blown into the side of the adjacent landing craft, more specifically in the engine section of the ship. The damage was enough to cause engine problems to the point where it was seemingly impossible.

Magbaredge watched as some of the bridge staff tried to either contact the Wadatsumi which was too far away to contact due to the jamming. Other individuals in the bridge staff including Colonel Braddock kept in touch with Yuki and Marito who had gone down to the engine block area to try and help fix the problem with the engines, and failing that, get the backups online.

"There's still nothing from the Wadatsumi!"

"Keep trying!"

"It's pointless there's too much jamming in the area!"

Magbaredge ignored the fruitless attempts to contact the Kataphrakt/Aircraft combat carrier and instead looked over at the group that was in touch with the pair that was attempting to help fix the engines. Currently Braddock was trying to get a status update "Marito talk to me, what's going on down there?" demanded Colonel Braddock his tone harsh and demanding, a stark contrast to his normal demeanor when around others. Of course this was in a combat situation, he couldn't always remain the relatively personable individual he was under normal circumstances.

"There's something wrong with the startup sequence, we'll need a few minutes to make temporary repairs to it!" Marito declared on the other end of the line. At this point Magbaredge decided to add in her own two cents to the conversation "We don't have a few minutes, there is a hostile Kataphrakt out there!" she declared.

Marito replied that "they were going as fast as they could" but this time neither Magbaredge nor Braddock gave any kind of a response as the pair, along with most of the bridge crew noticed that the Martian Kataphrakt had stopped making its slow overly dramatic advance towards the ship as a pair of Orange Sleipnirs stood upright and each drew the standard issue assault cannon from their mounts on the back of the machines.

"They're using a pair of trainers against that thing?" asked Magbaredge before she saw Colonel Braddock rush over to the communications terminal and began to contact the pilots of the orange clad machines. "Attention unknown pilots, this is Colonel Braddock of UFE command identify yourselves and state your intentions!" he ordered, although he already had a very good idea of who were the ones inside of the machines and what they planned to do with them, even if Nina Klein hadn't already muttered "Inaho," fearfully from her seat at the helm section of the ship.

From her seat at the helm "This is Second Lieutenant Kaizuka of the UFE, Calm Craftsman and I are taking control of two Sleipnir units and we are going to engage the enemy in order to help buy time for you to finish repairs on the engines." With that explanation out of the way, Braddock started to grit his teeth. He really wanted to order Inaho and his friend back but they did pull back it would leave the craft completely defenseless until support from whatever remained of the defense force or the Wadatsumi finally showed up and by the time they arrived it would be too late.

"Very well Second Lieutenant, you are free to engage the enemy. However do not take any unnecessary risks, am I understood?"

Inaho's almost robotic voice resounded over the radio "Understood Colonel." With that the conversation ended and Braddock turned his attention to the windows on the bridge that showed the battle that was going on just outside. As he watched Inaho and his friend's Kataphrakts slowly advance towards the enemy Orbital Knight, Braddock's eyes narrowed _'That victory earlier today had better not have been a fluke.'_

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* * *

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To the Orbital Knight Ser Vlad, the defenses of this place were even more pathetic than he had first anticipated. While it was true that the Orcus forces that he had sent in had done very little damage to other areas of the docks due to the defenses. However they were mere commoners and therefore did not possess the combat prowess or sheer power of a true Orbital Knight. Because of this Vlad managed to get ahead of the weak Orcus units and cut a swathe of destruction through the UFE lines straight to the primary target. It was so easy that it was practically disappointing.

When he reached the landing ships it was so much fun to toss one of the insects' pathetic war machines at one of them and watch it go up in smoke. Vlad wondered what he should do to the other one. He hadn't tried to slice one of these craft in half with his swords before, and it certainly would be interesting to see if that could be done. The Orbital Knight smiled at the thought. Hopefully it wouldn't explode until _after_ he finished making the attempt to slice it in half.

While Cruhteo ordered him to ensure that the area was cleared of any hostiles by morning it wasn't as though Vlad couldn't have a little bit of fun in the meantime. Besides it wasn't as though the Terrans were offering any real resistance. Vlad alone could have cleared this place out with relative ease.

The battle hungry pilot was brought out of his thoughts when he saw two of the orange painted Kataphrakts on top of the remaining landing craft stand up and aim their weapons in his direction. Vlad inwardly smiled. With some luck maybe these orange Kataphrakts would provide a little bit more of a challenge.

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* * *

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The systems for Inaho and Calm's Kataphrakts booted up extremely quickly and within a few moments both machines were standing up and had drawn their weapons. As the Sleipnirs stood up, Inaho noticed that the Martian Kataphrakt hadn't moved at all, sure it had its weapons drawn and was clearly prepared for combat but instead of just attacking while the Sleipnirs activated, it just stood there.

Perhaps the pilot didn't know what the capabilities of the Sleipnir was and was taking a more cautious approach, but then again this particular Orbital Knight was clearly alone despite the sounds of gunfire that echoed throughout most of the dock area. This told Inaho that that the Orbital Knight had broken off from the main attack force and had found himself and was looking for a fight rather than being cautious.

Not wanting to give the Orbital Knight a chance to attack Inaho loaded the assault cannon with high explosive rounds and opened fire at the Martian Kataphrakt even as Calm began to move in towards the machine's left. Much to Inaho's surprise, the rounds did not impact the machine, instead they simply exploded in midair after the machine raised its beam sword in the direction where the rounds were being fired.

Immediately Inaho's mind went into overdrive as he thought of why his rounds just exploded before impacting the target. It quickly became clear that the sheer heat being given off from the enemy machine was enough to make the explosives in the oversized bullets detonate early. _'HE rounds are having no effect huh? Well then let's try armor piercing,'_ thought Inaho as he ejected the apparently useless high explosive rounds in favor of the armor piercing ammunition.

Inaho quickly took aim and then opened fire. This time the rounds didn't explode on impact, instead the majority of the bullets were deflected by the beam swords and onto almost everything in the nearby vicinity, tearing into several cargo containers, warehouses and even a couple of nearby buildings. The few rounds that did manage to impact the armor did very little in the way of damage and instead simply dented it.

"The tips of the bullets are melting in midair due to the heat and their trajectory is thrown off. So it's the Leidenfrost Effect. The sheer heat output of those weapons must be enormous." Inaho had read about the Leidenfrost effect along with many other pieces of research on physics while studying for midterms a while back.

Inaho then started to move to a different position, still firing as he did. He had to keep the Orbital Knight occupied for just a little bit longer. Fortunately for Inaho it seemed as though his opponent was more than willing to simply deflect whatever ammunition was sent his way. Perhaps this Orbital Knight believed that he was having fun with this or something similar.

By that point, Calm had finally managed to get into position by one of the nearby warehouses that hadn't been heavily damaged by the deflected bullets and looked as though he was about to open fire on the Kataphrakt. It was then that Inaho's assault cannon ran out of bullets and he was about to start reloading when all of the sudden the Orbital Knight charged at the Sleipnir that Inaho had been piloting, sword ready to bisect the machine.

Inaho managed to sidestep the killing blow using the Sleipnir's thrusters at the last second. Not wanting to wait for a counter attack the Martian Kataphrakt attempted to vertically slash at Inaho's machine, only for the Sleipnir to grab the much bulkier arm and keep it at bay, for the time being. While Inaho's Sleipnir was able to hold it back, the sheer weight of the other machine made it so that it was only a temporary solution as it was already starting to gain more leverage over the smaller machine.

From his position Calm was gritting his teeth. He could easily see the Martian Kataphrakt but it was also right behind his friend and even if Inaho wasn't in the way, the energy sword would cause his shots to be deflected or explode. "Goddammit!" Calm muttered to himself, angry at his own powerlessness to help his friend.

Before Calm could try to get into a better position he heard Inaho say "Maybe a little bit more to the right," over the radio in that same deadpan voice he always had. Before Calm could inquire as to what in the hell his friend was talking about saw one of the dock cranes that Inko had been told to use earlier start moving. It swung a large cargo container into the left side of the Martian Kataphrakt's head, knocking it aside and away from Inaho. "Good work Inko," he heard Inaho say again.

"T-thanks Inaho," Inko said still very anxious about her part in the impromptu plan and actually seemed very surprised that it actually worked.

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* * *

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It had come completely out of nowhere for Vlad. One moment he was about to deliver the finishing blow to the orange little upstart and the next his Argyre was shoved dozens of meters away when that damnable crane struck the side of the Argyre's head, _hard_. When the Argyre was struck and sent reeling Vlad felt the wind being knocked clean out of him. For a second or two Vlad drew in heaving breaths as he struggled to get his lungs full of air again.

Once that was done, the Orbital Knight saw that the left half of his monitors showed nothing. "My left monitors are completely destroyed!" he muttered to himself angrily before he looked back at his opponents "You damnable little bastards, I'll make you all suffer for this insolence!" Vlad snarled as he started to charge at the pair of orange Kataphrakts, intent on butchering them both.

Vlad saw the crane from earlier swing its hook towards him again and he immediately sliced the cargo container in half as he charged forwards "Don't you dare think that that little trick is going to work on me a second time." The pair of enemy Kataphrakts opened fire on the Argyre only the rounds to either detonate early or be deflected by the energy swords his weapon was equipped with.

The bloodthirsty Orbital Knight was grinning at the prospect of killing the ones who had caused him so much trouble when he heard a very loud boom followed by an explosion nearby. Immediately Vlad stopped charging at his enemies and turned towards the ocean and saw an Aircraft/Kataphrakt Carrier a fair distance away and snarled to himself. If he stayed here he ran the risk of being killed. While the Argyre's weapons and defenses were indeed powerful they couldn't hold up against that kind of weaponry.

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* * *

-Landing Carrier, Bridge-

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Colonel Braddock, along with most of the bridge crew were all looking out at the Wadatsumi which had apparently decided to appear at the most dramatic moment possible. Honestly it was like something out of a clichéd action movie, the heroes were about to be defeated by the antagonists and then all of the sudden reinforcements arrive at the last second. The good colonel briefly wondered if he should ask the commanding officer aboard that ship if they were actually waiting for the last possible second to appear and offer assistance.

Colonel Braddock was broken out of his thoughts when he heard Mizusaki's voice come over the comm. channels "Sorry we're late Captain Magbaredge. It took us longer than we thought to find a secure route to your location." She explained. At that the captain gave a small amused smile and responded "Mizusaki, do you know why you can't get a date?" she asked. Braddock cocked a brow and somehow had a suspicion as to where the woman was going with this.

"I thought that it was in good taste to arrive fashionably late?" Mizusaki questioned. Magbaredge shook her head slightly and 'hmm'ed to herself in a way that almost sounded like barely suppressed amusement. "That's only when you manage to actually land a date," she explained as she watched the Wadatsumi turn its cannons towards the Martian Kataphrakt while a full platoon of Areions and Embarrs were on top, armed to the teeth with rocket launchers and sniper rifles. The Vers machine would either be gunned down or forced to flee.

Sure enough the Orbital Knight must have realized that to stay here was folly and started to make a run for it. Magbaredge was going to let the enemy unit go as they had the refugees to think about and they had already taken losses and they couldn't risk any more of their soldiers getting killed out there. No it would be better if they gathered their remaining forces and made their way out to sea and continued towards the Novichok base.

Before she could ask the engine room what the status on the repairs were, Colonel Braddock spoke into the comm. channels "Attention Wadatsumi, this is Colonel Braddock, have your Kataphrakt snipers eliminate the enemy unit immediately, destroy it at once!" he ordered with a tone that brokered no argument or negotiation.

Magbaredge was about to demand the colonel as to what in the hell he was thinking when she heard Mizusaki give a response "Uh, yes sir, Stallion Platoon open fire on the enemy Kataphrakt!" While Magbaredge was loath to question a superior officer she however didn't see the logic in this action. Clearly the Colonel saw the look she had on her face and turned to her "I understand you may not want to continue the fight but I can't allow even the slightest possibility that the enemy could chase after us at a later date. That machine must be destroyed and its pilot dead. At the moment we don't have any time for prisoners."

After the Colonel finished speaking there were several high pitched booms coming from the Wadatsumi and several 120mm rounds flew right into the retreating enemy. While it was able to deflect one or two shots from the snipers with its beam sword, it was still blind on the left side of it its head. This left it at a massive disadvantage when someone fired from the enemy pilot's left side. Even then its primary means of defense was rendered completely moot when one of the sniper rounds that had been deflected from striking its chest area and was instead redirected right to the Argyre's remaining right hand, blowing it off.

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.

Vlad barely managed to get his sword up to deflect the first shot from the snipers, and sent it careening into a nearby warehouse and out the other side into another building. The next few shots he wasn't so lucky, the second round blew off the left arm at the elbow, and then another shot blew off the right hand thereby destroying his only remaining means of defense. "You worthless insects!" he shouted in a rage. Vlad knew that if he didn't get out now he wasn't going to survive for much longer and he had to get away from those snipers.

The Argyre leapt away from the open and began to make its way towards the warehouses, where it would be much more difficult for the snipers and the other Terran units to actually hit him. As the Argyre took cover behind some buildings, Vlad seethed with rage. He would get out of there, he would get the Argyre repaired and then, _then_ he would have his vengeance against these damned primitives!

The pilot of the Argyre was about to have his machine make its way back to Count Cruhteo's Landing Castle when he heard an enormous boom, coming from behind him. It only took a millisecond for Vlad to realize that this wasn't the same sound as the snipers from earlier, instead this one was different, this noise sounded lower in comparison.

However Vlad didn't have long to contemplate the nature of the noise when his machine was suddenly upwards for a second or two before falling flat onto the ground below. Vlad looked at his machine's status monitor and saw that the right leg had been completely blown off from the knee joint.

"God, damn you all!" Vlad managed to ground out before he saw one of the olive drab colored Kataphrakts fire off a grenade directly at him and then, a brief bright light followed by nothing but an eternal darkness.

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-Marcus' Areion, a few seconds earlier-

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On the way to the docks Marcus had found what was left of Joust Platoon. They had all been completely wiped out by only a single enemy unit, meaning that it was probably similar in nature to the one that had destroyed most of Clydesdale platoon earlier that day. Every time they came across a wreck of the platoon they had gone to help, Marcus' rage had increased considerably and when he started hearing gunfire and explosions coming from the direction of the dock, all logic and reason had completely left his mind. Instead only a desire for both vengeance and to protect his students came into his mind and burned with an intensity to rival that of the sun.

He ordered the pair of pilots accompanying him to follow him to the docks. It was unlikely that they would be able to do much to destroy the enemy Kataphrakt but it was possible that at the very least they could delay it long enough for the transports to leave the harbor with the civilians.

When they got there though, Marcus saw something that he hadn't honestly expected though in retrospect, he should have, given Inaho's clear penchant for strategy and tactics. There were a pair of orange Sleipnirs by the Landing Carrier while, one of which was more damaged than the other and out in the distance was the Wadatsumi. However what really got Marcus' attention as the enemy Kataphrakt.

The machine was heavily damaged. A chunk of the waist area on the right side was completely gone, nothing remained of the left arm below the elbow joint while the right hand was completely gone and the left side of the head had been completely crushed. It was taking cover behind one of the warehouses and immediately Marcus saw an opportunity to finish off the enemy. "Miller take that son of a whore out now!" Marcus ordered.

Immediately the Embarr took aim with its assault cannon and fired off a single round at the left side of the enemy machine. The round struck it clean in the leg just above the knee joint blowing it clean off and launching the Kataphrakt upwards very briefly before it fell back to the ground onto its torso.

The machine was now little more than a walking piece of scrap metal but Marcus aimed his 75mm cannon at the enemy machine and fired off a round from the grenade launcher right into the back of the oversized machine. The grenade blew an enormous hole in the back of the machine and destroyed what was left of it.

Marcus smiled for a moment as Joust Platoon was avenged but then looked over at the damaged Sleipnir as it got back up on its feet and began to make its way back to the Landing Carrier. He was going to have some words with Inaho the next chance he got.

To be continued.

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A/N: I hope that you guys enjoyed the debut of the Orcus. I wanted to put them in the same vein as the Stygis fighters; there's a lot of them but they're only good as either meat shields or cannon fodder in a straight up fight.

I also hope that the demise of Vlad and the Argyre made sense (I never did understand why no one ever thought to try shooting those pencil thin legs). I mean it made sense that the Argyre could defend against 75mm rounds but the show made it clear that the sniper rounds were a somewhat bigger (120mm would be my guess) in comparison to the 75mm rifle that all other Earth Kats have. Plus they traveled faster and farther, after all one of those rounds managed to blow a hole right through the chest of that invisible Vers Kataphrakt in the second season so I thought that they could easily blow off one or two of the Argyre's limbs. So even if they were deflected it was still travelling much faster than the 75mm rounds were and as a result would do a lot more damage than the rounds that Inaho and Calm were using.


	6. Declarations of War

Aldnoah Zero Knights of Earth

Chapter 6

Declarations of War

Disclaimer: I don't own Aldnoah Zero, there lawyers you happy now?

A/N: I Know this is mostly a filler chapter but I hope you enjoy it regardless. Please review and give me your thoughts and criticisms.

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-Mars, Vers Capital City Olympia, Royal Palace-

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Without a doubt the Vers Royal Palace was perhaps one of the most impressive buildings ever created on the surface of Mars. The palace was massive, easily dwarfing all of the other structures in the entire area. Parts of the outer architecture had a Romanesque theme to it almost beckoning back to the days where Roman Emperors had some of the most extravagant halls. Inside the building were halls that would not look out of place at a Renaissance era palace as the halls were full of various paintings, sculptures and other pieces of artwork that had been bought from Earth.

The throne room was perhaps the most ornate part of the palace itself. The room itself was big enough to fill well over a hundred people and still have enough room for them to move around in. Ordinarily the emperor would conduct court in this rather massive room during most hours of the day.

At the moment though, the entire room was completely empty save for four individuals. One was Rayregalia Vers himself, sitting on his throne with all the air of an experienced yet somewhat weary ruler, to his left were a pair of highly trained and trustworthy bodyguards, while in front of the Vers Emperor was a member of the Vers Intelligence Division.

Right after the death of Princess Asseylum the Intelligence Division had immediately gone into investigating her death, an investigation that ended before it could even begin with the reactionary invasion by the Orbital Knights. Any at all evidence that those who managed to kill her may have left behind was most likely destroyed in the ensuing fighting and those responsible had either been killed or had used the chaos to escape justice.

The Intelligence Division had been completely outraged by the actions of the Orbital Knights and had requested that the Emperor of Vers call a ceasefire so as to at least allow them to investigate the death of the Princess. That was nearly twenty four hours ago and the man in charge of the division, Chief Agent, Custener had just been called to speak with the Emperor in person. The officer had just now entered the throne room and once he was close enough, knelt before his liege and lord and waited for the Emperor to address him.

"Chief Custener. You have made a very bold and some might argue, foolish request of me to offer a ceasefire to the Terrans for the assassination of my granddaughter. Why is this?" The old monarch's voice had an almost gravelly tone to it as he spoke making him seem slightly more intimidating than his age would suggest.

Chief Custener continued to kneel as he answered "Your Grace, there was no real attempt to even make an investigation into her highness' death and no evidence was gathered that the UFE government was even responsible. True it does appear as though security was rather lax given the ease in which her highness was murdered but it was possible that a Terran terrorist group was responsible or…" Custener trailed off hesitant to continue what may be considered a near treasonous thought.

Emperor Rayregalia cocked a brow "Continue Chief Agent Custener," he bade. Custener looked reluctant but eventually told him his thoughts, "It may be possible that a Vers group may be behind the assassination." At that startling revelation, Rayregalia's bodyguards looked as though they were about ready to pounce and violently "escort" him from the emperor's presence. However Rayregalia slowly lifted his hand, signaling for them to stand down. "That is a serious accusation," Rayregalia's gravelly voice declared.

Custener felt sweat start to gather above his brow and said "I know, and I don't make it lightly but there were groups of individuals who were very, bitter towards the Princess' decision to try and foster better relations with the Terrans and have repeatedly declared that it would be far better to simply take the planet for the glory of our great nation. Of course this is all mere speculation on my part, any real evidence went up in smoke when the Orbital Knights launched their invasion."

"Do you mean to suggest that members of the Orbital Knights may be part of this invasion then?" asked Rayregalia "If so then you have much nerve, the Orbital Knights have served me faithfully for the last decade and a half."

Custener looked even more nervous and quickly decided to clarify himself "I don't mean to suggest anything your Grace, just that the sudden invasion prevented any sort of an investigation from being conducted."

While Rayregalia was willing to admit that the head of the Vers Intelligence Division made very valid arguments, Rayregalia could not initiate a ceasefire at this time and conduct an investigation. If he were to do so then it would show that he had very little control over the Orbital Knights who invaded the Earth in his name and that of Princess Asseylum. Besides he had no real reason to doubt any of their true loyalties, after all they had sworn absolute loyalty to him, in exchange for being able to utilize the Aldnoah technology and he could easily take away that privilege away from them if they proved to be treacherous.

Eventually Rayregalia spoke, this time it was with a tone of great authority "I will make an announcement to both my people and those of Earth within the next few hours, that is all."

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-Count Cruhteo's Landing Castle, Communications Room-

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Count Cruhteo, one of the most highly decorated members of the Orbital Knights was standing in front of a rather large orb that showed the face of the undisputed leader of their order, and one of the few people that Cruhteo called friend, Count Saazbaum. The count had contacted the Cruhteo in order to get an update in regards to his progress in the Japan region. Cruhteo had of course given him all information that was relevant "Tokyo and most of the surrounding areas are now under our complete control. And Shinagawara where our beloved Princess Asseylum was murdered has also been conquered."

A familiar pleased smirk appeared on Saazbaum's face "That is excellent news." He declared but then decided to move on to other matters, "Incidentally, where is Trillram, I would have expected him to try to deliver this news himself in an attempt to gain more glory. Is he still out trying to make a name for himself on the battlefield then?" Saazbaum asked somewhat amused.

With that having been said Cruhteo's expression darkened considerably. "We lost all contact with Trillram a few hours after he entered Shinagawara. Eventually we sent out Ser Vlad along with several platoons' worth of Orcus support Kataphrakts, we lost contact with them as well and shortly afterwards some disrespectful ruffian had the audacity to launch a meteor bombardment into my territory. As of now I'm sending in search and rescue teams to locate Trillram and whatever may remain of Vlad and his forces."

Saazbaum allowed an expression of barely suppressed outrage to come over his features _'How could this have happened? I gave Trillram more than enough warning about the bombardment.'_ The leader of the Orbital Knights forced himself to regain his composure and spoke "I see, well I'm certain that Trillram is fine, after all the Nilokeras' defenses are effectively impenetrable. As for Ser Vlad, I admit I knew little of him but from what I did know is that he was a proud and honorable warrior. He will be sorely missed."

The pair closed their eyes and were completely silent for several seconds to show at least some respect towards those who had died in battle. After keeping silent for a few moments the pair decided to get back to some rather important matters "On that note however, I would appreciate being contacted by Trillram as soon as you ascertain his status."

Cruhteo wasn't entirely sure why his old friend would want to speak with Trillram seeing as how the pair had never really interacted with one another. However it was no matter what the reason, the leader of the Orbital Knights wished to speak with Trillram and Cruhteo would see to it that it would happen. "Of course Saazbaum, I shall make sure that Trillram contacts you the instant we manage to get in touch with him."

Saazbaum looked as though he was about to leave it at that and return to his own agenda aboard his Landing Castle when a thought suddenly occurred to him "Before I leave, might I ask one more question of you Count Cruhteo?" he requested. Cruhteo gave a polite nod "Of course, what do you wish to know?"

The next question however through Cruhteo for a loop though "Who was the individual that brought Trillram to the battlefield?" Cruhteo cocked a brow at the question, wondering why the leader of the Orbital Knights was even interested in such a thing "It was Slaine Troyard, is there a problem?" he asked while noticing how Saazbaum was starting to stroke his chin in thought for a few moments before turning his attention back to Cruhteo.

Saazbaum shook his head and turned his attention back to Cruhteo "Nothing, I was simply curious." Something told Cruhteo that it was more than that but he didn't press his old friend for any more information on the matter, at least for the moment.

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-Count Cruhteo's Landing Castle, Hanger Bay-

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Slaine Troyard had thought that he had been prepared for anything when the war against the UFE and when he had left an Orbital Knight to die on the field of battle. He had been wrong, so, so completely wrong. The reality was much different than anything he had seen in historical documentaries.

At first they had just brought in what was left of Orcus support Kataphrakts, some of which had been crushed, blasted to pieces or just outright reduced to smoldering wrecks. That wasn't too bad, at least until they started to try and pry open the cockpits. From there things became nearly vomit inducing. Bodies, or rather pieces of them were pulled from the wreckage. Each and every face, had expressions of pure terror, agony and pain, or rather, those that did have facial features did at least. Even those that had some of their faces burned off still managed to convey expressions of pure agony.

Then there were those that were still alive. Some of the few surviving Orcus pilots had been burned, either mildly or severely, others had lost limbs while the lucky few managed to escape with only a few cuts, bruises and maybe a slight concussion. However the number of those that were "lucky" could be counted on one hand. Soon screams and moans of pain began to fill the hanger as the medical personnel began to try and get the wounded onto stretchers to be taken to the Landing Castle's ample hospital.

Upon seeing (and smelling) the dead and the wounded, Slaine felt the urge to run to the nearest bathroom or, failing that, the nearest trash bin to void the contents of his stomach through his mouth. However to the boy's credit he managed to hold it back and instead all but rushed into action and made his way towards the area where the wounded were being helped.

The blonde haired boy made his way towards the nearest medical officer that was barking out orders at some of the other medics as well as those that had volunteered to try and help. Slaine had no more duties for the day and decided that his time would probably be better spent at least trying to aid the wounded.

As Slaine got closer to see if he could ask one of the medics if he could try and help some of the wounded, he felt one of the medical officers grab his hand hard "You! I need your help now!" The man all but yelled amidst the pandemonium that was gathered around him. Slaine immediately went to the man's side and soon found himself by a wounded Orcus operator who was bleeding rather badly from a wound in his side, while there were a series of burns that were all over the right side of his body.

The medical officer began to bark orders at the young Terran "Put pressure on this wound now we need to keep him alive until we can get him to the sickbay!" he yelled. Slaine did as he was told and put pressure on the wound and all but ran alongside the gurney, continually putting pressure on the partially bandaged wound, despite that blood was beginning to seep through the bandages.

As they continued towards one of the many sickbays that the Landing Castle was equipped with, the wounded man lying on the gurney began babbling about what had happened ruing the battle "That, that Orange monster just slaughtered him, slaughtered Vlad like he was nothing."

Slaine looked over at the medical officer who paid the soldier no real heed "It's the blood loss he's delirious and in pain we need to get him to sickbay _now_!" Slaine nodded and as they continued down the corridor. As they did the soldier continued to scream about how the "orange monster" was heading southwest and that Cruhteo had to be told at once. Slaine had no idea who or what this "orange monster" thing was but if it was the same Kataphrakt that destroyed Trillram's Nilokeras then there was a pretty good chance that the princess was with him. Slaine's eyes widened for a brief second as he realized that there was also a very good chance that the pilot of the "orange monster" also knew who the princess was as well.

As Slaine continued to help the medical officer escort the wounded man towards the sickbay section of the Landing Castle he wondered how he could find out where the Princess was.

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-Pacific Ocean, Wadatsumi, Captain's Office sometime later-

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It had been almost fourteen hours since the Wadatsumi had finally left port at Shinagawara and since then the captain of the ship was itching to get a few answers from Colonel Braddock. When she had been ordered by the good colonel to take a detour to an unknown location out in the middle of nowhere off the coast of the Japanese mainland for vague reasons, she had almost wanted to protest. Her first priority was to get the civilians to the Echo Airbase where they would be taken to the Novosibirsk safe zone.

Instead for the past several hours they had been going in a direction that the good Colonel had ordered them to go in. Every now and then they were ordered to alter their course somewhat and they were never offered any idea as to where they were going, only that they would "be informed soon enough".

While Magbaredge knew when she joined the military that she would have to obey orders and not be given an explanation as to why she had to do this particular assignment and under normal circumstances this would have bothered her. However these were most certainly not normal circumstances. At least now it seemed at long last that she and the rest of the ranking officers would be getting some answers as to where they were going and perhaps what they would be doing when they finally arrived there.

Standing in front of Magbaredge was the only other occupant in the room; Colonel Braddock himself who had a neutral look about him. While Magbaredge was initially going to involve all the ranking officers onboard in this little conversation, Colonel Braddock had been very insistent that this conversation remain as confidential as possible.

"So are you going to tell me what exactly is going on now? Earlier you mentioned that this place you wanted us to go 'contained one of the keys that would end this war,'" said Magbaredge. While the captain's tone was neutral her patience was beginning to wear thin. Colonel Braddock gave the captain an apologetic look "Unfortunately, due to the extremely sensitive nature of the project in question I can't give you all the information yet. It's one of the reasons I had us changing course every couple of hours, we had to do what we could to shake off any possible tails."

Magbaredge looked as though she was about to say something but Braddock held up his left hand in a placating gesture and continued. "But I can tell you the location of where we'll be headed. Once we arrive, I'll explain all the details I promise."

From there Braddock pulled out a small piece of paper and a pen and began to write down what was probably a set of coordinates to their destination. When Braddock handed her the piece of paper he had an almost apologetic expression on his face "This is our destination and we need to get there as quickly as we possibly can."

Magbaredge curiously took the piece of paper in hand and looked at it for a moment before her eyes widened considerably. When Braddock saw the expression on the woman's face his features softened somewhat "I can assure you that this isn't some sort of sick joke and I promise that the instant that we arrive all details will be given to you."

The writing on the paper was the name of a remote island that was the location of a very, very personal tragedy.

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-Wadatsumi, Sickbay-

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A few minutes ago, Lieutenant Marito was called into the Wadatsumi's sickbay by Doctor Soma Yagarai. Marito wasn't exactly sure why but he was more than certain that it wasn't to chat over drinks like they would with Marcus after their work day was finished at the Shinagawara Academy. No it was more likely that it was something much more important judging by the doctor's look after Marito walked in, it obviously wasn't a social call.

Still though Marito couldn't help it if he let out a few remarks "So you're setting up your shingles on a boat now eh doc?" Of course, Doctor Yagarai was less than amused by those kinds of remarks "Look, Lieutenant I've got enough on my plate right now, so let's say we cut straight to business." With the way that the doctor spoke it was clear that it wasn't a request. Yagarai reached forwards to Marito's chest pocket and pulled out the flask he always had on him. Marito looked down and had a feeling as to what Yagarai was going to do with it but was still irritated when he saw the doctor take his booze and put in a small drawer before he proceeded to lock it up.

Yagarai saw the look that Marito had on his face which almost looked like that of a kicked puppy, the former highschool doctor at least had the sense to look slightly apologetic towards his friend. "Sorry Lieutenant but Colonel Braddock's orders, no drinking while we're in this war. He want's everyone at one hundred percent."

At that Marito began to rub his temples in frustration. Alcohol was perhaps one of the few things that help him deal with some of the, _issues_ he had when it came to bad memories of the first Martian Invasion over ten years ago. "And how does he expect me to be at once hundred percent if I can't even have some form of booze?" he asked incredulously.

Yagarai shrugged "You know he has access to that particular report on what happened on that island right? Maybe this is his way of making you stop running?" Marito started to grit his teeth in irritation. If Marito wanted to drown out the memories of his friends getting butchered by the Martians with booze then he'd drown those memories with booze!

"It's not like I went and asked for his help," Marito grunted irritably as he pulled something out of his pocket. Yagarai recognized it as a pair of dog tags and saw that the name read "John Humeray" and then looked up at Marito who had a sad yet faraway look in his eyes.

Yagarai sighed and really wished his friend/drinking buddy would get a very simple fact through his head "What happened wasn't your fault Marito. You eased his suffering."

Marito sighed before putting the tags back in his pocket. He got up and then started to make his way towards the medical bay's exit and said "I really wish that I could believe that, I really do." Marito placed his hands in his pocket and felt the dog tags in his hands once again and felt a crushing sense of guilt come over him. It was his fault, because he should have been able to prevent Humeray's death in the first place.

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-Count Cruhteo's Landing Castle, Cruhteo's personal office-

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For what felt like an eternity Count Cruhteo had been going over reports made by several of the reconnaissance units that had been sent out after the meteor bombardment on Shinagawara. They had already recovered a number of surviving Orcus pilots and debriefed those that were conscious enough to be debriefed as most of the survivors that had been brought in had either died or were too doped up on pain medication and sedatives to be of any help. Those that were still alive had told of the ferocity in which the Terrans had defended the docks and how they had killed most of the Orcus units that had accompanied Vlad after he ordered his men to charge at the enemy defenses until they were brought low.

Cruhteo wondered what in the hell he had been thinking when he allowed Vlad to take several platoons worth of Orcus support Kataphrakts when he sent him to the docks to prevent the Terrans from escaping the city. While Vlad had been a very competent warrior and pilot in his own right, he had never been much of a tactician as most of his plans were to simply charge the enemy until one side was dead. The man either didn't realize or more likely simply didn't care that the Orcus units didn't have the same level of durability that the Orbital Knights customized Kataphrakt's did and so were more likely to be destroyed in combat even by the inferior Terran models.

Of course Count Cruhteo could have simply had one of the other Orbital Knights under his command to make their way towards the Shinagawara docks but they were already securing areas outside of Tokyo. By the time that they managed to at their destination it would have been far, far too late to prevent the Terrans escape as they would have been long gone by the time any other force arrived in the area.

The blond haired noble pushed the thoughts of Vlad's death on the battlefield and returned his focus to the pilots who managed to survive the entire debacle. One of the most disconcerting reports he had gotten was from one of the survivors who saw the entire battle himself. He claimed that a pair of Orange Kataphrakts engaged the Argyre and managed to fend it off long enough for the UFE's main evacuation ship to arrive. When that happened the Argyre was bombarded by heavy caliber sniper fire and then surrounded and destroyed by units that were falling back to reinforce their lines.

Up until now Cruhteo hadn't seen any Earth made Kataphrakts that were capable of standing up against an Orbital Knight's machine. Were these orange Kataphrakts some new kind of weapon that the Terrans had constructed? If so then were they powered by Aldnoah Drives? It was the only real explanation that he could think of as to why the Terrans were able to hold back against Trillram's Argyre long enough for it to be overwhelmed by hostile reinforcements.

This line of thought was put on hold as Cruhteo's attention was diverted by a beeping noise coming from his desk's built in intercom. Cruhteo pushed down on the answer button and said "Report." There wasn't even a pause as the individual on the other end of the line spoke up "My lord we have found lord Trillram's Kataphrakt as you requested."

That got his attention. It seemed as though they had finally managed to get into touch with the bootlicker. That man had better have had a damn good explanation for his lack of communication for the past several hours. "I see, I hope that he had good reason that he didn't respond to any of my summons."

The soldier on the other end of the line didn't respond for several seconds, and when he did his response managed to shock Cruhteo to the core "My lord. Lord Trillram, he-he's dead." For several seconds Cruhteo was at a loss for words. Trillram's machine had the ultimate defense, there was no way it could be penetrated by a Terran weapon. Could he have been caught in that meteor bombardment as well? "What? How?!" demanded Cruhteo.

The response was not something that Cruhteo wanted to hear "We aren't entirely sure how his defenses were broken my lord, but it is clear that the Nilokeras was brought down by enemy weapons fire and not a meteor bombardment." That was impossible the dimensional barrier the Nilokeras was equipped with was proven to be completely impervious to any form of weapon. There had to be some sort of mistake.

Cruhteo pushed the talk button again "Are you absolutely certain that this is the case?" he asked, dreading the answer. If the Terrans had some kind of weapon that could bypass the Nilokeras' dimensional barrier then what else did they have hidden away? After all the most dangerous enemy was a desperate one and the Terrans were clearly getting more and more desperate.

This time the reply was quick and to the point just as the soldier had been trained "My lord with all due respect I have seen damage resulting from a meteors and weapons-fire many times and this is clearly the latter. We're bringing the Nilokeras along with its data recorders back to the Landing Castle for analysis and you can see the damage for yourself."

"Very well, I expect you to report in the second you get the Nilokeras' remains back to the Landing Castle." There wasn't even a pause as the soldier gave an affirmative and was dismissed by his lord. Perhaps now Cruhteo would finally get some answers as to what had happened.

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-Wadatsumi, Access Corridor-

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It had been several hours since the battle at the docks and Marcus eventually found Inaho Kaizuka who was walking one of the access corridors heading for the Mess Hall for breakfast. Hours earlier Marcus wanted to try and speak to the group or at least Inaho about going after that Martian Kataphrakt on their own. Of course by that time they had already been debriefed by the captain who had actually applauded their efforts and was planning on putting the group up for commendations for their actions. Hell even Inaho's sister congratulated them with a big dumb grin on her face (of course it was obvious that she was doing that to hide her own concern for her younger brother).

At that point the lieutenant's desire to chew out Inaho and his friends for doing something so risky, seemingly without any sort of plan, started to dry up. Reluctantly, Marcus decided to sleep over it before he went and ranted at one of his former students about how they did something stupid. He had to remember that both he and Inaho were now the same rank -as jarringly surreal as it was- and that he couldn't just order the kid to not keep doing what he was doing.

Hell to make matters even more bizarre, now Inaho completely outranked his sister as she was still a Warrant Officer. It was actually kind of funny now that he thought about it. The roles had completely reversed and now Inaho could easily order his sister to do whatever he wanted and she'd have to go along with it whether she liked it or not. Any younger sibling in that kind of situation would probably exploit the living hell out of it. Fortunately for Yuki, Inaho wasn't the kind of person who would give embarrassing orders unless of course it would somehow win a battle.

When Marcus caught up to Inaho the boy looked over at him for a moment or two before he asked "Is there something wrong Lieutenant Marcus?" This was one of the few times that Marcus was glad that Inaho wasn't all that perceptive on social things. Marcus shook his head and decided that it would be best to show some honesty towards the kid at least for the moment "To be honest Inaho I was originally going to chew you out for doing what you did on those docks last night."

Inaho's expression didn't change, in fact it almost seemed as though he had been expecting that last bit but he seemed curious as to why he wasn't being chewed out by his former instructor yet "Why is that?"

With that question Marcus let out the breath he hadn't realized he had been holding in and explained "Well for one thing we're the same rank in this military I don't outrank you anymore despite the fact that I think that you and your friends rushed in without much of a plan-" but he wasn't able to finish when Inaho interrupted

At that Inaho tilted his head "But I did have a plan. I had Inko on the crane controls to slam a crate into the side of the Martian Kataphrakt's head, which would not only knock it off balance and then Calm and I attacked from different directions." he explained to which Marcus started to massage his temples.

"Alright so you did have a plan but so many things could have gone wrong with it, the bastard could have attempted to move around the crane instead of charging right next to it. He could have spotted your friend earlier and gone after him instead of you. All I'm saying is that you need to think of the consequences of one of your plans failing more often. I don't want to watch the kids I've been training getting killed on the battlefield because they did something reckless."

Inaho seemed to understand where his former instructor was coming from "If I keep worrying about my plans failing all the time I won't be able to get things done but I do intend on taking as many measures as possible to keep that from happening."

Marcus felt somewhat satisfied that Inaho had understood where he was coming from and while it wasn't perfect at least Inaho knew that he'd have to at least _try_ to take measures to make sure that he and his friends would survive if the battle plan fell through.

0

* * *

-Wadatsumi, Mess Hall a few minutes later-

* * *

0

"So you both came all the way from Poland?" asked Yuki who was sitting across from that new girl Annette and her little sister Edda. Shortly after coming to the mess hall to get some food Yuki had spotted the girl and her little sister trying to get some grub themselves. Curious about the girls her younger brother had picked up, Yuki had invited the two over to her table and decided to ask them a few things. The two girls seemed a little bit reluctant at first but the two quickly started to open up about themselves.

"Yes I thought that it would be interesting to go out and see the world first hand so I decided to study abroad," Annette explained before her younger sister Edda chimed in "And I decided to come as well, someone has to keep her out of trouble after all."

When she realized what she had said, Edda seemed torn between feeling horrified and embarrassed. Yuki however just broke out into laughter, although it wasn't a laugh at someone's embarrassment instead it was more like the laughter of someone who went through something similar. Eventually Yuki stopped laughing long enough to catch her breath. However she almost started laughing again at the startled looks that

"I'm sorry, but believe it or not that was exactly what Nao said when several people approached him and asked if he would like to be transferred to a more prestigious school rather than Shinagawa Academy. He said point blank to those guys that he was: 'going to continue to attend Shinagawara Academy because someone has to make sure my sister wakes up early enough to get there on time.'" When Yuki remembered the looks on the faces of that school's recruiters when Inaho said that to them she had to keep herself from breaking out into a laughing fit. Sure it was a little bit embarrassing that his sister's sleeping habits was the reason that her little Nao didn't want to go to a more prestigious school but it was still funny.

Annette and Edda both looked at each other with bewilderment on their faces. They knew that Inaho was a rather, blunt individual but clearly this was something that was much more than either of them had expected. Still though they had only known him for little over a day so Inaho was probably a lot more than just the stoic kid they met on the road during the evacuation of Shinagawara.

The pair watched as Yuki looked as though she was about to continue on with another story or ask the two something about themselves but before she could so much as utter a word, Inaho appeared by the table with that same neutral expression on his face and took a seat next to his sister "I was also going to tell them that if I left then it was likely that you would burn down the apartment the next time you tried to cook breakfast for yourself but I thought that might end up being too troublesome for me in the long run."

With that Yuki covered her face in both of her hands and stifled an annoyed groan "Why do you always bring that up Nao? That happened one time. _One. Freaking. Time._ And since then you've treated the kitchen as though it was some kind of holy temple and won't let me go anywhere near it." At that both Annette and Edda were barely able to keep themselves from giggling at the scene in front of them. In fact for a brief second Annette thought she saw Inaho's mouth twitch upwards in an attempt at smiling.

Inaho sat down next to his sister and decided that it would be best to try to placate her "Still though at least it's not nearly as bad as the time that Marcus was assigned kitchen duty in the school, it had to be evacuated because the food he was cooking caught fire, shortly before the rest of the kitchen." Somehow, Marcus must have heard that from sitting at another nearby table and looked directly at Inaho with his eye narrowed at the newly promoted lieutenant "Why is it that whenever someone wants to make their cooking seem better they always compare it to mine? I don't know why every stove I touch explodes when I use it, but could people please stop rubbing it in?" He begged.

Marito who was sitting nearby his friend gave a small smile and patted his friend's shoulder consolingly "Don't worry it could be worse, you could start a nuclear explosion when you use the microwave. At least that thing doesn't seem affected by whatever curse you were born with."

Yuki had the decency to at least look sheepish at her little brother's earlier comment while said younger brother still had on his almost blank expression "I'll try," said Inaho honestly while Marcus sighed but he had a small, almost amused smile starting to form on his face "I guess that's as good as it's ever gonna get."

Inaho's older sister turned to look back over at Annette and Edda "So I've told you a few interesting things about Nao and I, so why don't you tell us a few-" she started but before she could finish the sound of static filled the room as the TVs mounted from the mess hall's ceiling without warning, causing several people to jump in surprise. The screens quickly changed from nothing but white noise to a man wearing a Vers uniform who was sneering at the presumed audience.

Marcus immediately stood up and looked as though he was about to sound an alarm as it was more than possible that this was the precursor to some kind of an attack but before he could make a run for the intercom the Vers stooge on the TV started speaking "Attention all worthless Terrans, the great Emperor Rayregalia of Vers has seen fit to address you personally. I strongly advise you all to listen to his words carefully for they will seal your fates."

At this point everyone was paying rapt attention to the TV screen, for as far as anyone knew the Emperor of Vers hadn't made any sort of statement regarding his empire's renewed war with the UFE. Some of the refugees were hoping against hope that maybe this was some kind of call for a ceasefire, so that they would be able to stop running and hoping that they wouldn't be blown out of the water by a group of Martian aircraft or Kataphrakts. They would soon have their answer as the screen switched from the snobby looking Vers officer to that of an ornate throne upon which the almost decrepit looking Emperor of Vers sat.

When Marcus saw at him he felt his hands clench into fists in a silent rage as he really wished he could take an axe to the son of a bitch's face.

There was a delay of a few seconds before the figure on the seat finally decided to speak up "For the past several hours I have been completely silent on the death of my granddaughter and the subsequent invasion by the Orbital Knights. No more." There was a pause making several people wonder if he had intended that for dramatic effect "I hereby declare an official state of war between the Vers Empire and the Terrans of Earth and fully support the actions taken by the Orbital Knights. You and your kind have murdered the heiress of the Empire who came to Earth on a mission of peace. For this crime you are clearly unfit to rule the planet known as Earth and those who are your betters shall soon claim it in the name of the Vers Empire. Justice will be swift and merciless to any and all who resist the coming of the new order." With that the screen turned black again.

Up until a few moments ago the mess hall had been bustling with activity and conversation between dozens of people had since fallen so silent that one could hear a pin drop to the floor as everyone stared at the blank screen in shock and horror.

If war hadn't been declared before with the actions of the Orbital Knights then it definitely was now.

* * *

To be continued.


End file.
